ll

e fUewy Gee-Gee.

■:'>;X^. :v;^K-«

Horn to

Bpedd, Btteak and Hid% film.

«fid

The |4obl« Ri»t of Baeking
taiojaei«s Oft th« Tarf.

THE MERRY GEE-GEE

THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Ibow to Bree&, 36rea{5, anb 1R(&e llJitn
f or'art) Hwa?

AND

r^y^ NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS
ON THE TURF

BY

J. G. LYALL

LONDON
F. V. WHITE & CO.

[4, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1899

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. How I CAME TO WRITE A BoOK . . I

II. Breeding i6

III. Breaking 52

IV. Riding 81

V. For'ard away 115

VI. The Noble Art of backing Winners

ON THE Turf 158

THE MERRY GEE-GEE

THE MERRY GEE-GEE

CHAPTER I

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK

Returning home from Newmarket the
other evening after a particularly un-
successful week, and being in an extra-
contemplative mood, the thought recurred
to me, as It had so often done before,
that I would, by one vehement resolve
— a real copper-bottomed, armour-plated,
life-and-death resolution — bind myself
never to back another horse In a race.
Financial matters were about as black

2 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

as could be with me, and I had taken
a week's racing, thinking and hoping to
play up a few sovereigns by judicious
investment, but it had ''come off crabs"
(to use a familiar turf vulgarism), as It
generally does when one goes as a last
extremity and to stop a gap.

Pulling my race-card out of my breast-
pocket to review the days proceedings,
I also fished out with it two writs and
four county court summonses, all of
which demanded Immediate attention, so
as a preliminary step I carefully tore
them Into tiny fragments and committed
them to the four winds of heaven out
of the carriage window ; leant back in
the corner of the compartment, gazed
vacandy at the scudding landscape, and
resumed my reverie, with the result that
In a few moments I brought down my
fist on my knee with unusual gusto, and

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 3

swore solemnly to myself to have done
with backing 'em for as long as I
breathed the breath of life. What a
career mine had been, too ! Surely I
ought to write a book, and Insert a few
experiences — a few of the things I had
seen and knew.

"Tickets all ready" at the terminus
awoke me from the refreshing slumber
into which I had fallen, and, pulling
myself together, I remembered my re-
solve, which was fixed and sealed, and
from which nothing In the world should
ever turn me. I am Impulsive to the
last degree, and, candidly, I am not at
all sure the old adage as to second
thoughts proving the best has proved
true on the few occasions in which I
have brought It into play. Yes, acting
on the Impulse of the moment without
much consideration is useful sometimes,

4 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

especially when hounds are running hard,
and you successfully negotiate the fence
in the corner of the field at which, had
you hesitated, your horse would probably
have blundered and fallen.

Now, it so happened that on the very
next day after my return from New-
market just recorded, I drove over from
Melton Mowbray (where I now reside)
to Piper Hole (familiar name to all
Leicestershire hunting men) with a
young horse in my high brake, and
whilst standing there quietly enough
he suddenly took fright at some sound
or movement, and quick as thought
he commenced to kick and plunge as
if forty unclean spirits were inside him.
He turned the brake over and kicked
me as I was falling out, broke both
shafts off, tore the harness to smither-
eens, and made things hum pretty

now I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 5

lively for a few minutes. More than
that, he has all but smashed my thigh
and ribs ; consequently, instead of watch-
ing the Ouorn hounds rattle the cubs
round Gartree Hill cover this morning,
I am laid in bed sore and envious, and
shall probably be here for some little
time to come. Thus fate, or what you
please to term it, has impelled me to
carry out my half-hearted threat of yester-
day, viz. to write a book.

It's wonderful how frequently the
whole bent of one's life from a given
time seems turned by a mere thread,
and deviates into what seemed improb-
able channels ; and certainly, if that
beggar hadn't settled me yesterday, I
should not at this moment be budding
into a real embryo author.

Possibly some of my gentle readers
(in all cases made and provided, as the

6 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

lawyers say) — if there are any such
long-suffering individuals born yet — may
have had the thought flash through their
minds at some period of their existence,
*' How would it be if I tried to write a
book ? " Awfully funny sensation when
you really ask yourself the question in
earnest. "What the deuce shall I write
about?" comes the reply. Naturally, the
maudlin schoolgirl must write a pathetic
love-story. Let me strongly advise her
not to start that subject too young,
though. I should suggest " Botany " or
'* Bird Life in the Woods and on the
Coast" as a preliminary canter at any
age under five and twenty. By then
and in the ordinary course she will
doubtless have broken four or five men's
hearts, or peradventure the man she
secretly adores will have gone and
married " quite a common-looking creature

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 7

— squints, and all sorts of things, don't
you know, my dear ? '* so that by then
she will have been " through the mill '*
sufficiently to take her subject well in
hand.

Of course, it is simplicity itself for a
bronzed warrior fresh from the Soudan
to write of the conquest of the Khalifa,
and to scribble by the yard of Dervish
valour; but I have chosen for my
theme ''The Merry Gee-Gee," for is
not the love of a horse born in me
and grafted in my very nature ? As to
any claim to a knowledge of my subject,
have I not bred many, dealt in them
more or less since my school days, broken
hundreds, hunted in many countries both
fox and stag, owned and trained a few
winners and a good many losers, read
all the books relating to horses I could
ever lay hands on, gone broke, been

8 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

rough-rider and nagsman, London
brakesman and four-in-hand man, driven
a hansom, made a book on the course,
and gone to bed hungry ? This may be
only an apprenticeship, may be, and
doubtless is, only partially ''going
through the mill," but it's enough for
me, with thanks — very many thanks.

I believe the proper and recognized
thing for an out-and-out amateur author
such as I am is to engage an editor, or
coach, or some such "bird of prey," to
knock one's ideas and scribblings into
readable shape and sound English, but
I will have none of these. I am just
going to run riot as my fitful fancy dic-
tates ; and if (as is more than probable)
none but an old pal or two will ever
struggle through it, what matter if it is a
disconnected, egotistical, and ungrammati-
cal jumble ? One promise I distinctly

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 9

make, and that is, it shall be candid,
even as against myself.

My earliest recollection of anything
connected with horses was when, about
four years old, I used to ride four or
five broomsticks, and kept them all care-
fully tied up in the nursery, with suitable
names for each one.

We worked thirty or forty cart-horses
on the farm, and I very soon got to know
them all by name, many of which I can
remember to this day, although my
father died and we left that farm when
I was seven years old. That was up on
the Lincolnshire Wolds, on the Brocklesby
estate of Lord Yarboro', in the good old
days when wheat made three, four, and
sometimes five pounds a quarter, and
wool fifty to seventy shillings per
tod. (Present prices : wheat twenty-five
shillings, and wool nineteen shillings.)

lO THE MERRY GEE-GEE

My old dad was quite the old-
fashioned type of farmer — drank a
gallon of beer (of his own brewing)
per day for fifty-five years, besides liquor,
and never had a day's illness in his life.
He'd have lived to be a hundred right
enough if he hadn't happened an accident.
He committed the indiscretion of marry-
ing a second young wife at sixty-five,
and in due course became the author of
my being, so the beer had not done him
so very much harm, had it ? He made
a rare fuss of me, I can remember,
and used to cross-examine me as to
which mares the young horses were
all out of, etc. We had one hundred and
fifty beasts, all red ; he wouldn't have
one with a white hair on it. There is
a Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn Breeders'
Association now, and they have an annual
sale at Lincoln April Fair.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK II

In those days lots of Lincolnshire
farmers hunted in scarlet and drove
their broughams — men with fifteen or
twenty thousand pounds invested in
agriculture ; and you would find four or
five farmers or their sons in each parish
who hunted the little red rover on
horses of their own breeding, whilst now
you may traverse four or five parishes
before you meet with one, and a man
on a horse at all is fast becoming a
curiosity.

There are no better fellows living
than Lincolnshire farmers. Yorkshire
and Norfolk farmers are jolly good
fellows too. There are right good sorts
to be met with here in Leicestershire, and
everywhere else, for the matter of that ;
but I somehow notice a different type
of farmer where all grass abounds than
where there is a mixed tillage.

12 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Lord Lonsdale, late Master of the
Quorn, has been particularly generous
and thoughtful to Leicestershire farmers,
making all the second horsemen keep
together, so that they do as little
damage as possible, and also issuing a
free register of corn, hay, and straw for
sale by farmers all over the Quorn
country, and so holding out an induce-
ment to the gentlemen of the hunt to
deal with the producer direct.

I hold rather strong opinions, which
I am aware are at variance with the
generally accepted theory, as to this
forage question, viz. that by November
well-got new hay is as good as old,
and that a very big proportion of what
one buys as old oats off the corn-merchant
about the same season of the year is
either a mixture of new and old or new
altogether. Not that I think there is

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 1 3

any injurious effect from all this — simply
that we are too strongly wedded to a
phantom theory, and the victims of a
certain amount of imposition into the
bargain. Clover hay well got makes
a capital change for delicate feeders,
and so does sainfoin. Horses that
are shy feeders should be coaxed and
tempted with what they show a liking
for (so long as it is not injurious), and
fed often and in small quantities.

A horse has a very small stomach in
proportion to cattle and other animals
about their own size, hence I favour
late stable time for suppering horses in
training, and early breakfasts. It is
an easy matter for a responsible stable-
man and the stud-groom to take this
matter in turn, and I am convinced of
its advantages. Horses at grass are
for ever grazing, look at them when

14 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

one may, and be the pasture ever so
luxuriant ; and nature sets many examples
which science has yet to improve upon.

I am firmly convinced that every horse
confined in stables requires salt in some
form, and I always give all mine, from
cart-horses to race-horses, a lump of rock-
salt to lick in their mangers. I am
equally certain that nothing like suffi-
cient roots are given horses, especially
young ones working and living on corn.
Carrots are best for hunters and race-
horses, but where these are not available
swede-turnips are a good substitute, and
equally good for slow work. Mangold
wurzel, too. Is capital for cart-horses
in the spring months, but rather sour
up to Christmas.

If a man studies the peculiarities of
horses under his charge with intelligent
observation, he is sure to find some

HOW I CAME TO WRITE A BOOK 1 5

requiring different methods to others,
and a great error is very frequently
committed in feeding and treating them
irrespective of their different individual
peculiarities.

I have had several hunters who would
eat enormous suppers and hardly anything
before noon. One very good mare I
hunted would not eat anything on what
she thought was a hunting morning, so
I used to '' kidd " her by taking her
out just a few minutes. That seemed
to satisfy her that she had taken her
exercise, and she would then eat a feed.

But ** Hark back ! " This is just what
I expected ; I am off to hunting matters
in the wrong place, and unless I " whip
off" I shall kill my fox in cover before
the run starts, so here goes for another
chapter.

CHAPTER II

BREEDING

I AM going to write very little about
the breeding of cart-horses under this
heading, as most men who breed them
are practical farmers who know quite as
much on the subject as I can tell them,
but one word I may say in the shape
of advice especially applicable to the
small occupier who rears an odd foal,
and it is a point which I shall emphasize
very strongly further on, when we come
to hunter-breeding, i.e, don't breed from
small, under-sized, ill-shaped mares. If
any one has a mare of the small and
i6

BREEDING 1 7

useful class, who may nevertheless have
proved a real good slave for the purpose
required, he says to himself, " If I sell the
old mare she won't make above a fiver,
so I'll breed from her, and put her to a
Shire horse." If you want to breed a
cart-horse, my advice is, let the old mare
go for what she will fetch. I'll tell you
where to replace her at the same money,
and this also applies with equal, or
perhaps greater, force to seekers after
mares suitable for breeding hunters.

Most of the best cart-horses find their
way to London at five years old, and
are used up on the stones. They are
resold as they gradually show signs of
wear, from one job to another, where
smartness is less necessary, till they get
right off their feet with the cruel hot
stones. Their price at the Repository
gets down to perhaps seven or eight

c

1 8 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

sovereigns, or even less, but the breeding
and great banging frame is still there, and
they are not only just as good for breed-
ing purposes, but it is marvellous how
many of them recuperate v^hen they get
their feet on cool soft ground, even in a
few weeks, and many a cart-mare bought
in London that can hardly hobble will
trot about in a grass field, fairly sound,
in a day or two. I have bought some
hundreds of low-priced horses in London,
so I am not speaking at random.

The Repositories at which intending
purchasers will find this class of cart-mare
are the Barbican, Elephant and Castle,
Edgware Road Repository, and Staple-
ton's, Commercial Street, East. If you
are fastidious as to rubbing shoulders
with some terrible dirty scadgers, don't
go to Stapleton's, as it adjoins Spitalfields
Market, and you meet the veriest dregs

BREEDING 1 9

of East End costermonger society there.
If, on the other hand, your clothes are
getting shabby, and you would like to
be a veritable toff for the day, go to
Stapleton's, and your highest ambition
will be gratified. Don't polish yourself
up too much, though, or the company
will mistake you for a stray duke out
for the day, and doing the East End. I
have bought some rare cheap horses at
Stapleton's for an old song, however, and
I commend this course to farmers want-
ing cheap good mares. Good, sound,
weighty cart-horses are likely to continue
in good demand at remunerative prices
for a long time yet, in spite of motor-
cars; but I think the fashionable craze
for noblemen breeding shires, and the
extravagant prices of a few years ago, is
past its zenith.

The runs of fashion in breeding prize

20 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

and fancy stock amongst noblemen and
millionaires does not change quite as
quickly as the fashion in ladies' hats, but
it does have fashionable runs and quick
changes, and always will so long as
there are shoddy millionaires or demi-
millionaires knocking about who don't
care what they spend so long as they
can be in the swim with the cream of
society, from the Prince of Wales down-
wards. The shorthorn craze was on
fifteen or twenty years ago, and I
remember attending the marvellous
sale of Mr. Torr's at Riby, near
Grimsby. A heifer that day made 2400
guineas, and others in proportion. To-
day really good shorthorns of the best
blood make just a few sovereigns more
than butchers' or grazing price, and that's
all. Every dog has its day, they say,
and shorthorns have had theirs. They'll

BREEDING 21

come again, though, in another genera-
tion as certain as crinolines, coal-scuttle
bonnets, and Dundreary whiskers.

Shropshire sheep were all the rage a
few years ago, and Lincoln Longwools
took a back seat. To-day Shrops are in
the rear, and LIncolns in the van. Only
the other day a Lincoln ram of Mr.
Budding's, bred on the same farm as
Mr. Torrs heifer above mentioned, was
sold for looo guineas, and several others
at 200 and 300 guineas each.

There were one or two things our fore-
fathers were not such very great duffers
at : one was architecture ; at least, I don't
see any new buildings erected nowadays
to lick the old cathedrals. But what con-
cerns us most Is the science of breeding ;
and really, the clever manner In which
our ancestors assimilated the breeds of
cattle and sheep to the climate and soil

2 2 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

of various districts is truly marvellous.
Take Shropshire or Suffolk sheep to
winter on turnips in Lincolnshire, and
they will do no good whatever. Take
Lincolns to Warwickshire or Staffordshire,
and they will quickly lose the staple and
lustre of their wool. Breed them there
two or three seasons, and you will hardly
tell them from shortwools : they lose their
characteristics. You must not take Welsh
Runts or Hereford cattle further north-
east than Leicestershire, or the stronger
grass and sharp air will settle their pre-
tensions ; they must give place to the
hardier shorthorn, and so on.

How many times does one hear the
argument advanced that you seldom get
chops and steaks in the provinces equal to
those in town i* — an opinion in which I
entirely concur, so far as regards the best
hotels and restaurants. Permit me to

BREEDING 23

explain the reason. The London high-
class butcher knows the particular county
or district which produces the best-quality
meat at given periods of the year. Let us
follow the seasons with beef, for example,
and start at Christmas. Top quality then
is Scotch and Norfolks, because the
roots, pulse, and fodder in those localities
are the finest grained and best, hence the
meat the same. Norfolks will keep on to,
say, the second week in June, long after
the Scots are exhausted, and will then be
superseded by the first crop of early
grass-fed shorthorns off the Lincolnshire
fens and marshes. Just before August
Herefords assume the command, followed,
seven or eight weeks later, by Runts. If
(for example) you took a Hereford and
Runt of equal weight to Islington the first
week in August, and asked a high-class
butcher ;^20 each for them, he would say.

24 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

If you like to separate them I'll give
you £2 1 for the Hereford ; but the Runt
is no use to me, it is not in season yet.
Take the same two beasts on October i,
and he will exactly reverse his tale. He
knows that which his provincial confrh^e
is ignorant of, and has not the facility
to ascertain.

I have had a very large and success-
ful practice as an auctioneer, and have
sold in the Metropolitan Market. For
some years, I dare say, I sold more sheep
than any man in England — some 200,000
per annum — but Fve lost more in a day
racing than I made in a year selling, or I
should not be writing this '' tract." Many
a time I have sold in Islington Cattle
Market at 7 a.m., taken Hinckley Market
in Warwickshire from one to three, and
had a four hours' spell selling unredeemed
pledges in our mart at Leicester from

BREEDING 2$

six to ten — all on a Monday, and just a
tidy day's work.

We will now proceed to discuss the
breeding of blood-stock ; and granting, for
argument's sake, that you are wealthy
and entirely independent of all monetary
considerations, you can afford to keep
mares in your harem with twisted legs,
cow-hocks, contracted feet, or roarers,
and mate them with stallions at 300 or
400 guinea fees, because so long as
you can produce a flying two-year-old
(which by some merciful dispensation
of Providence may perchance train on
into a three-year-old) that will carry
your colours first past the post a few
times at Epsom, Ascot, or Goodwood,
your wish will be gratified, the goal
reached, as the fickle goddess dictates ;
but please do not, "my millionaire,**
tell the country you are doing this thing

26 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

for your country's good and to improve
the breed of horses. Luck has a loud
voice in breeding blood-stock (as well
as in other pursuits), and will have, in
spite of all figure systems, which, as
applied to producing race-horses, doubt-
less has its merit, inasmuch as it favours
breeding from lines of winners or lines
which have produced winners. I believe
in breeding from winners, and they win
in nearly all shapes ; but if you keep on
persistently breeding for a few genera-
tions from winning mares with weak
loins or sickle-shaped hocks, you will
very soon perpetuate a breed with backs
so narrow that they will cut the man in
half who bestrides them, and with hind
legs at right angles at the hocks.

But, after all, what consequence is this
to the parvenuBy so long as he owns
winners, with the accompanying kudos y

BREEDING 2^

independent of all gambling interests ?
There are exceptions, of course, and I
should say about one breeder in a
thousand breeds for his country's good.
That's not many, is it ? and it won't
take many fingers to count them. If,
as a middle-class man of moderate means,
you have an inclination to breed a few
thoroughbreds either for sale as year-
lings or to race yourself, buy a few
mares, as your accommodation or means
allow — winners preferred, free from mal-
formation or hereditary disease, big and
roomy, any whole colour except greys
or roans, mind they stand square on
their legs, and walk and trot square in
their action to you and from you — and
put them to a stallion of a similar stamp
at a moderate fee, and you will very
likely breed a race-horse ; but if at two
years old your colt is too slow for flat-

28 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

racing, you can lay It by for steeple-
chasing or hunting, or as a stallion for
the home or foreign market. You will
always find a sale for your horse if he
comes anything like true to his parent-
age, and will not have to part with him
for a tenner.

Perhaps one reason why I emphasize
the desirability of them standing and
moving true Is because I at one time
held a commission to buy stallions for
a foreign government to sire troopers,
and I know how exceedingly difficult
suitable horses are to find. A Leicester-
shire hunter may be forgiven for having
to wear boots on his fetlocks or pasterns
if he belongs to a man with a big stud,
and can carry his owner In front of 400
tearing and envious followers for forty
minutes from Ranksboro' Gorse or Bllles-
don Coplow one day a week or once in ten

BREEDING 2^

days; but put a heavy dragoon with his
baggage on the same gee, and let him
undertake a protracted march under a
tropical sun over rugged ground — bad
shoeing, and his leather boots worn
through — and the said gee will be resting
his bruised fetlocks, and the said dragoon
cursing the government that sent him a
bent-legged brute like this to ride. Ex-
perience and observation rather force me
to the belief that not only in breeding
horses, but also in breeding animals of all
kinds, it is better to have full size in the
sire, whilst a trifle under-size is permis-
sible in the dam.

Without entering at length into the
saturation theory, which avows with some
evidence of truth that the influence of
a given sire on his progeny from a
given dam, is partially transmitted to the
second progeny of the same mare by a

30 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

fresh sire, but which theory is too
intricate for discussion here, I am never-
theless pretty certain that colour of skin
and feather comes more from the sire,
whilst make and shape is handed down
from the dam. For instance, if you
mate a Berkshire boar with a pure white
sow you will get more black spots on
the litter of young than by mating a
white boar with a Berkshire sow. In
choosing a stallion for your mare, besides
making certain that he counteracts in
his formation any deficiency in your
mare, take care the strain of blood, as
proved by results in producing winners,
nicks in properly, and also, if possible
(and especially if breeding for sale), that
the stallion has sired some winners
already, or is in a large stud where he
will have ample facilities given him to
make a name for himself, as it will give

BREEDING 3 1

immense impetus to the sale of your
yearling if some winners by the same
sire are ** getting home/' and shedding
lustre on his fame.

The *' Special Commissioner " who
writes in the Sportsman is the best-
versed public man in breeding theories,
and he generously gives most courteous
and gratuitous advice to blood-stock
breeders in the columns of that journal,
as to what lines of blood will mate
advantageously with their mares. Manage
as one will, however, and lavish what
money you please, there is no command-
ing success in the breeding of blood-stock.
The late Lord Falmouth could breed
classic winners just like ordinary mortals
shelling peas. The Rothschilds, for some
time previous to these last few seasons,
struck an unlucky vein, with Sir Bevys
alone to break the monotony. Very

32 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

unlucky, too, was Lord Roseberry for long
enough up to the Ladas, Sir Visto, and
Velasquez era. The Duke of West-
minster had a wonderful run a few
seasons ago, which has received, let us
hope, only a temporary check ; whilst the
Duke of Portland, who a while back
could breed nothing but Derby winners,
can now hardly win a selling race. When
Hermits were carrying all before them, the
Blankney yearlings used to fetch enor-
mous averages, but now, although they
have Galopin and Friars Balsam to per-
petuate fame, their yearling average for
several seasons has been a sorry contrast
to fifteen years ago. Sir J. Blundell
Maple, who has an enormous stud with
perfect clockwork arrangements at Chil-
wickbury, gets only a miserable return in
the number of winners it yields.

Luck and fashion runs in grooves and

BREEDING 33

cycles, and it is not in the power of mortal
man to command success where the
element of chance comes in. Some men
apparently cannot do wrong for years in
anything they undertake, and they are
apt to arrogate to themselves every turn
in fortune's wheel as the outcome of their
own cleverness. When disaster ultimately
overtakes such as these (as it usually
does, sooner or later), they generally howl
like whimpering curs.

The luckiest small breeder I wot of
is my friend John C. Hill, of Willough-
ton, who was a neighbouring farmer
of mine at one time. He generally
kept a hunt-chaser years ago that could
win a race at the local meetings,
and rode himself An extraordinary
good man to hounds he was, especially
on certain days. He is a man of
few words, but when you saw him

D

34 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

craning his neck at the coverside of a
morning, and his hat jammed well in his
neck, you needn't ask any questions. Jack
meant going, and without bucketing his
horse at first, he was certain to be there
if they ran for two hours. One day he
bought Moorhen, by Hermit, a good-look-
ing, sizey mare, for, I think, 250 guineas.
This was in the days when hunt-chasers
had to be qualified by M.F.H. certifi-
cates, and not by being placed in a
steeplechase, as now ; and Moorhen won
many races, sometimes '* owner up," but
more generally piloted by Mr. Brockton,
without flying at very high game, but
still winning occasionally small open
hurdle races and steeplechases. He was
bid ;^i500 for Moorhen, but wouldn't
sell, although it hardly looked a " turning
away" price for a tenant farmer, but it
was all for the best, as she presently bred

BREEDING 35

Gallinule, sire of Wildfowler, this years
St. Leger winner; Pioneer, third in the
Derby ; and another yearling which he
sold for ;^25oo to Colonel North, so
altogether she must have put something
not far short of ;^ 10,000 into her owner's
pocket, and he was offered ;^4000 for
her as a brood mare.

This happens to be the day after
the Duke of York Stakes at Kempton
Park, and I notice the three placed
horses are all by Gallinule, as well as
the winner of the next race, quite a
unique incident, and there really seems
no end to old Moorhen's influence on
the fortunes of mankind. There are many
examples of this in turf history, notably
Blink Bonny, the founder of the fortunes
of the TAnson family. One good horse
injudicious hands is the foundation-stone
of a middle-class fortune, gambling apart.

36 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

I am not going to say many words
about the breeding of the present-day
prize hackney, as for the generahty of
them I have the profoundest contempt.
Three-parts of the bad-shouldered hack-
neys one sees at shows, with their
tiring, climbing action, would drop down
dead if driven five and twenty miles
alongside a sharp blood-horse on a
country road. They make a decent flash
driven the length of Hyde Park, but beat
themselves if they go much further. My
model of a hackney is Mr. Carnley's
Norbury Squire, who has won more
prizes than any other horse in England
in harness and hack classes at the shows
this past few seasons, I should say. At
any rate, I have seen him beat all the
other recognized champions in turn ; and
whilst it goes without saying that he has
extraordinary fine all-round action, with

BREEDING 37

lots of fire and courage, what charms me
is his lovely shoulder, and the know-
ledge that, although by a hackney
stallion, he Is actually out of a mare
by Hermit ! I must have blood —
thoroughbred blood, closely allied one
side or the other ; and it Is In this
respect the so-called hackney is deficient
and a disappointment in nineteen cases
out of twenty.

Nowadays, when everybody rides bikes,
the ordinary ride-and-drive horse there
was always a certain trade for years ago
has become a drug in the market and
profitless to breed. Polo ponies have
their own registered Polo Stud-book, and
beyond expressing an opinion that if you
breed long without a pure, small thorough-
bred or Arab sire you will soon get
wide of the mark, I will dismiss them.
A covert hack proper I look upon as

38 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

an enlarged polo pony or miniature
thoroughbred, and, besides being a good
walker, must be able to do a sling
gallop seven or eight miles without
drawing rein, losing his courage, or
displaying much outward and visible
sign of fatigue; and obviously one must
not wander far from the thoroughbred
to produce this class of goods.

Carriage-horses are very valuable and
very saleable goods when big enough
and well matched in colour and contour.
Hardly any game pays better in the
dealing line than the match-carriage-horse
trade. I was breaksman for one of the
leading London dealers one season when
I had gone broke racing — did nothing
but drive pairs and four-in-hands from
morning to night. It's a very nice art
putting raw ones together, making them
step and go together, carry their heads

BREEDING 39

level, and giving them manners. They
take no end of matching, and you have
to scour the country fairs to attain your
end. You have hardly any chance to
match unless you have a big stable and
a good connection. You may go to
country fairs and buy, say, seven horses
at different times, any one of which you
think will match the other, but when
you get home you will be lucky if you
can couple two pairs out of the seven to
fit a connoisseur. But you are assured
of a big profit when you can match.
You buy a green four-year-old at a fair
for ^80, and a good price too, perhaps,
for him individually as he stands. You
do ditto at another fair — that is £i6o
for the two. Take them home and find
they match, give them nice manners,
and they are worth ;^400 or ^500.
Then they are not the same expense and

40 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

risk in schooling and getting fit that
hunters are, nor do they require such
expensive living to get in condition.
They simply want jogging about in a
double brake in traffic with knee-caps
and boots all round for an hour or so
per day.

These reflections and observations
lead me to lay stress on the fact that
you cannot do without the middle-man,
or dealer, in any trade. The nobleman
wants to go and select his pair of
carriage-horses where he can have some
choice, and they are ready to hand.
Besides, I'll defy any one to account to
a nicety for people's taste in horseflesh.
I know of my own knowledge (lawyer-
like term again) that you may invite a
customer, whose requirements you think
you know, to come and look at a certain
horse you think will suit exactly, and ten

BREEDING 4 1

to one he will say, *' Ah well, no, I don't
think he is quite what Tm looking for;"
and he will stroll round, and eventually
buy the bay out of the corner box of
the back stable that you would never
have dreamt of showing him.

No ; the world requires the middle-
man in the horse trade, the cattle trade,
and all other trades that I am at all
conversant with. Besides, if by the
wave of a mystic wand, dealers, auc-
tioneers, and other middle-men could
have their present means of obtaining a
livelihood extinguished, they would exist
by some other means, I presume. The
food they eat and the clothes they wear
would not become so much spoil for the
rest of the community.

I have given hackneys short shrift up
to now in this chapter, but will give
them this chance — that if you have a big

42 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

thoroughbred mare or hunting mare, pro-
viding they are of good whole colour, of
nice symmetry, and standing and going
square with moderately good action, you
may put such to a good big hackney sire
in the hope of breeding carriage-horses.
The other cross is to mate a big
thoroughbred sire of suitable colour and
without twisted legs to a big hackney
mare. Remember a carriage-horse should
be built on lengthy, flowing lines of
graceful symmetry, not short, coupled,
or goose-rumped. Avoid white legs,
and by selecting a stallion that will in
all probability be available another
season or two you may possibly breed
a match pair, but this is by no means
a certainty.

Coming now to the breeding of hunters,
it may almost be laid down as a sine
qua noil that the sire should be thorough-

BREEDING 43

bred, but one does very occasionally
come across a crossbred sire which
would get hunters from thoroughbred
mares, but it is most exceptional.

Some years ago I did tumble across
a rare good stallion of this description
who proved himself a real good hunter
sire. He was by a thoroughbred horse
out of a so-called hackney mare showing
lots of quality, but which was in the
H.S.B., and as a matter of fact I
bought a foal out of this mare by a
thoroughbred horse with which I won
several steeplechases. I bought this
stallion for the Indian Government as
an experiment, and he was most suc-
cessful out there getting troopers. For
breeding hunters I should myself never
have put this horse to any but clean
thoroughbred mares.

To go back to the safest and most

44 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

popular cross, i.e, thoroughbred sire on
a three-quarter-bred mare, let us for a
moment discuss the thoroughbred sire. I
must again, at the risk of repetition, draw
attention to the essential for square
standing and true action. If your sire
dishes, or Is cow-hocked and goes wide
behind, his progeny is pretty sure to do
the same. If you have a habit of
wearing your own boots unlevel or are
knock-kneed, your children will be pretty
certain to have the same tendency in
a reduced degree. You have only to
look at the soles of your own boots
and your children's for proof of this
argument.

The various masters of hounds in a
great many counties generally offer the
services of good sires to the farmers and
puppy walkers, as also do many of the
large landowners, notably the Duke of

BREEDING 45

Portland. Partly from this source and
partly because the Horse Improvement
Commissioners some years ago took the
Royal grant off the Queen's Plates and
gave the money for premium stallions,
the country is now quite inundated with
good sires.

I hold the opinion myself, private
enterprise would for several years, at
least, provide sufficient suitable stallions,
and that the present Imperial grant flows
in a wrong channel. It is the mares that
are not to be found. It is a sweeping
assertion to make, but I do not believe
there are more than forty or fifty mares
in farmers' hands in Leicestershire and
Rutland at all fit to be classed as hunter
brood mares. There are, however,
hundreds of under-sized, angular, three-
cornered, nondescript mares bred from
with miserable results, and I think that

46 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

if the Horse Commission turned their
attention wholly or partly to the registra-
tion of and the granting of premiums
to mares, more beneficial results would
accrue.

I am quite certain, if a farmer will
attend i\ldridge's or the other London
Repositories I have named, he can
with patience buy some really grand
samples of hunter brood mares for ten
guineas each, or perhaps less. This is
where the good mares meet their last
market I have seen some grand ones
included in drafts from Messrs. Tilling
of Peckham, who are the largest private
job-masters in England. When their
wheelers get off their feet on the stones,
and can scarcely hobble, they send them
to the Repositories to be sold for what
they will fetch ; but a few weeks on the
cool ground alters all that, though they

BREEDING 47

would hobble again if they returned to the
stones. Breed hunters big, and up to
weight if you can; these are what
command the money. I have known
several light, cleanly, active mares that
have taken their place in Lincolnshire
farm teams, themselves only two or three
removes from a thoroughbred sire, who,
when mated to a blood horse have shown
a marvellous capability for breeding
weight-carrying hunters, and have proved
a small fortune to their owners. In
such as these it is, of all things, absolutely
necessary that their shoulders should be
well placed.

The Hunter's Improvement Society
is a well-meaning institution, but I am
not sanguine of their efforts being
crowned with any great measure of suc-
cess. Private enterprise will always
meet such requirements as carry their own

48 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

reward. The price the Government pays
for troopers is quite inadequate remune-
ration to the producer, neither is the
current price of any middle-class nonde-
script horse, be he sound as a bell and
quiet as a lamb. It is only the best
and truest specimens of each individual
class of horse that are any source of
profit to the farmer who breeds and
rears them, consequently the man who
breeds from unsuitable mares or mates
good ones badly is blind to his own
interests, and lis courting disappointment
and loss.

There are thousands of acres of
moderate land in this country, the
rent of which is now reduced to almost
a nominal sum, and whilst such land is
in many cases entirely unfitted to the
grazing of cattle and sheep, much of it
will do horses well ; and I firmly believe

BREEDING 49

that by buying mares at low prices, thus
reducing the risk to a minimum, and by
suitably mating them, there is remunera-
tion in store for such enterprise. How
much better business it would be for
farmers to breed something at small
expense such as I have suggested, with
the possibility of making from £']o to
;^ioo at four years old, than purchasing
the three-cornered wretches they are for
ever buying out of the second-class Irish
and Welsh droves at fairs and markets !
These really are the dearest class of
horse a man can possibly buy, as with
the best of luck they never can, at any
subsequent period of their career, ever
be worth more than their original cost
out of the drove.

I have not any statistics at hand
giving the number of horses imported
annually from America to this country ;

E

50 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

but I know it to be something enormous
the last few years, and this gives much
cause for reflection.

It is only just for a few weeks in
mid-winter these brood mares require a
little cheap corn just to warm and hold
them together, and by allowing the foals
to remain with their mothers as long as
there is any natural support, much ex-
pense need not be expended on them.
Of course, I am not alluding to young
race-horses, which must be forced to
early maturity to the utmost. Thorough-
bred yearlings intended for sale are often
ruined by the artificial means used to
force them. Their bodies get too heavy
for their immature legs and joints, and
their feet get hot, thus fostering disease.
Whilst breeders and trainers all know
the evil results of this system, the fact
remains that if you take a yearling to

BREEDING 5 1

Doncaster or Newmarket sales, looking
rough and backward, and cutting a bad
figure alongside his neighbours, you can't
sell him.

CHAPTER III

BREAKING

Bless me, I am over another fence,
and picking out a place in the next !
Only fancy having written two chapters,
and starting another! A hundred times
I have been on the verge of tearing up
the whole lot, and having no more of
this terrible job. I have counted the
words on the lines, and the lines on the
pages, and calculated how many will fill
a book. I remember indulging in this
sort of thing over my first essay at
school, and I suppose it is so with every
one who writes a first book. My people
52

BREAKING 53

have to speak over and over again to
me before attracting my attention from
staring into vacant space, and my hair
is loosening at the roots. I shall be
perfectly bald-headed before this magnmn
opus is finished. I am wondering how
authors come to be depicted the long-
haired wretches they generally are. It's
a puzzler they should have any thatch
at all. What bothers me a lot is any
sort of division into chapters, and I
begin to think I must either call in aid
or collapse. No matter ; I promised my
readers (if any) a jumble, and a jumble
it shall be.

Even as some men are born to
command, to make great generals,
schoolmasters, brigands, pirate chiefs —
what you will — so are some men born
with an indescribable natural control
over the lower animals. Dogs follow

54 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

such men in a few hours, horses bend
to their will, pigeons settle on their
shoulders, and elephants dance jigs to
their bidding. Patience, firmness, and
an equable temperament are the primary
essentials of such. I have known Gal-
vayne, and hosts of such trainers, and had
innumerable drinks, cigars, and pleasant
conversations with no end of circus high-
school masters, and also have the pleasure
of knowing Captain and Mrs. Hayes,
who have written some estimable and
instructive books, and been touring in
" furrin' parts," giving interesting examples
of their proficiency on wild and un-
manageable horses, which quickly come
under their control and carry Mrs. Hayes
contentedly round the arena. As my
boy Frank and I break from fifty to
a hundred a year without assistance,
and are seldom more than three days

BREAKING 55

before we ride and drive them, our ex-
perience will do for ordinary purposes ;
and when one writes a book, it is, after
all, perhaps as well to put something in
it which may be of use to the common
or garden mortal.

I may as well introduce Frank
before we go further, as he may crop
up again. He is not yet fifteen, and
I think I brought him out the youngest
horseman on record. He rode his
first pony-race when he was eight, at
Kyme, in Lincolnshire. After that I
soon apprenticed him to myself, and he
had his first mount on the fiat on Eheu
at Doncaster, when Throstle won the St.
Leger, before he was eleven. He rode
his first steeplechase last autumn at
Leicester, when he was fourteen, and
made all the running for two and a half
miles against eleven runners and Ford

56 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

of Fyne, who won. He rode five steeple-
chases last spring, and this summer he
has ridden in ninety-three jumping com-
petitions all over England, winning nine-
teen firsts, and being forty-seven times
in the first three. I hope to see him
win a grand National some day. He
ought to be flat-race riding now, but I
have no horses running at the present
time, and other trainers have their own
boys bringing out, and would not put up
an outside boy (who has not had the
opportunity to bring himself to the front)
for worlds.

A good apprentice is often the "best
horse in the stable " to a trainer, but
he must be bound to them ; and if you
send a young boy out, and he looks
like getting beefy, they will never bother
about him. He sinks into oblivion ; learns
such riding as he can pick up from

BREAKING 57

riding in the string; learns to hold on
by the reins, which he ought not to
do; gets bullied if he is nervous or
retiring, and a crack on the head if he
is a bit cocky.

All horses should be haltered and taught
to lead when they are foals, whilst they
are weak and hardly any trouble, for
they never forget it. When I was farm-
ing 1000 acres up in Lincolnshire and
bred a lot of foals, I used to amuse my-
self during a frost partly by driving the
hunters tandem and partly by teaching the
foals to lead. They are not very strong,
and easily mastered, and have not the
strength to damage themselves as older
ones have.

In starting an untouched two or
three year old, first drive him into a
box, and go in to him with a strong
halter and a stick, closing the door to

58 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

prevent his attention being called to
extraneous objects. Speak low soothing
words to him or whistle — it answers the
same purpose. He will snort and his
eyes flash fire, but it is from fear ; he
knows no vice as yet — that he may
acquire later on through wrong usage,
but not without. Touch him lightly
with the stick on his shoulders or
quarters. Rub him with the stick all
over by degrees till he takes no notice
of it ; he may kick at it once or twice,
but take no notice, he will soon leave
off. With your stick on his quarters,
extend your hand to his neck or
shoulders, and if he shrinks back, give
light taps on his quarters with the stick
to bring him to his original standing
place. He will soon let you rub him
with your hand and the end of the
halter as freely as with the stick.

BREAKING 59

Perspiration will now be dropping off
him, and tears running from his eyes.
Admit your assistant to tap his quarters,
whilst you put on the halter as quietly as
possible, followed by a leather headstall,
and then adjust the bit so as to barely
touch the corners of his mouth. Up to
now you have not ceased whistling, and,
on the principle of earliest impressions
being the most lasting, you will find
whistling have a soothing effect on him
for a long time to come. Take the
halter in one hand and the stick in
the other, and accompanying a tap on
the quarters say the familiar '' Coop," and
slightly pull the halter. If he throws his
head about, don't pull against him : ten
men can't hold him yet. He will, how-
ever, soon advance to the other end of
the box. '' Good boy. Coop " again, and
so on. The voice has a most powerful

6o THE MERRY GEE-GEE

and magical effect on the horse, and
you should always use the same word
to indicate your desires ; but of that
more anon.

After adjusting knee-caps, and a strong
rope to the headstall, a difficulty will
present itself getting him to the tit-
ting-post, or tree. You must select a
place with soft surroundings, or he will
damage himself. I used to have a post
in the middle of a straw yard on
purpose. Possibly he will lead quietly
beside an old mare to the post, to which
fasten the end of the long halter. Now
the fun begins, and he will have a rare
go at that post ; but as soon as he finds
himself beaten, a child can hold him.
Lead him round each way, and put on
the rest of the breaking-tackle. Then
lead him back to his box, and tie him
up for two or three hours. Better let

BREAKING 6 1

him Stop tied a few days, except when
you want him to champ his bits and
v/alk about the box, as it will be easier
at this stage to break him to standing
tied. Mind your rope is strong. A horse
should never know his own power over
man : once he gains that knowledge it
takes a lot to deceive him again.

Last year I broke a big strong four-year-
old three-quarter-bred cart-horse. He
was strong as an elephant and wild as
a hyena. He was a lively joker this.
With one exception, no human being had
ever been within twenty yards of him —
been running wild on Burrough Hills all
his life. He managed to break the first
rope, and after that broke every rope in
Burrough village, I verily believe. In a
few days I drove his owner about the
stalls in Melton Market with him, and let a
little boy of mine, ten years old, ride him.

62 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Don't leave the tackle on your horse
more than about three hours at a stretch,
and if he does not work his bit, change
it for another and hang it rather loose in
his mouth. Loosen the side-reins when
you want to lead him, putting your right
hand on his back and giving him the
necessary taps on his off quarter. Put
on a fast or standing martingale adjusted
to the bit before you put on the long
reins, and practise him to these first in
the box, and teach him to act to the
voice and the motion of your hand and
whip, as his mouth is young yet, and
sensitive to the slightest pressure.
Bearing in mind that he is impres-
sionable of all things, particularly to
the voice, always speak clear and dis-
tinct, saying simply, **Coop," "Whoa,''
"Stand over," or "Come here," as the
case may be, accompanying your request

BREAKING 63

by a gentle tap or draw of the rein. It
is better for one man only to work the
colt at these early stages, till he knows
a bit, as it is highly essential to say to
him only the right thing in the right
place. For example, you require him to
stand over, and you repeat these words
and no other, accompanied by a tap, till
in a very few moments he will have
learned his lesson and comply with eager-
ness ; but if, after the lapse of half an hour,
a stranger comes and, requiring him to
*' stand over," says, " Now then," or " Get
up," or " Hello," or '' Come here," is he
not speaking in a foreign language to
him, and undoing what you have taught ?
Teach him the alphabet of " coop " and
" whoa," and you can drive him about the
streets with impunity. Run him round
always as much one way as the other, or
his mouth will be getting one-sided.

64 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

You can lift a light boy across his back
in the box, now first one side, then the
other, and put him up and lead the colt
round with the boy on, and in a few
minutes he will ride him all right in the
box — that is, if the boy knows how to
speak to him and enforce his requests.
I am not in favour of dumb jockeys, and
never hardly use them. They may be
of some use on a dead-mouthed older
horse, but then their effect is only tem-
porary, and they may be permissible on
a colt who is difficult to make champ the
bit, but not for long.

A colt should be taught, by the use of
fixed side-reins, that '' so far and no further
shalt thou go " is a golden maxim for him
to follow, and the yielding to pressure of
the elastic reins of the dumb jockey tends
to imbue him with the notion that he has
only to pull hard enough to gain a certain

BREAKING 65

mastery. Generally the same day as we
first ride our colts we line them in harness
a few minutes, and then put them in the
brake ; they are so subservient to your
bidding and taken aback by this new
obedience, that they are less trouble then
than after a few days' consideration. As
you put your colt in, be careful to rub him
well with a short stick wherever a fresh
strap or the shafts are likely to touch, so
as to take the nervousness off, and again
whistle to him. Loosen your standing
martingale a little, so that he can reach to
the collar easily ; and run an extra pair of
reins through the bit and fasten to the
turret of the harness-pad, by which you will
have great control in case of emergency.
Rattle the trap about and fuss and coax
him a bit, and with a " Coop " he'll walk
off right enough. I put a lot of hunters
in harness here in the spring for the

F

66 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

hunting people, and seldom spend more
than ten minutes over them before putting
them in and driving them.

For kickers, take a plough-line or cord
about as thick as an ordinary clothes-
line ; make a small noose, and put the
cord through the horses mouth with the
noose close up. Take the cord over his
head behind his ears, threading the head-
stall— and, bringing it down, run it through
the noose and back upwards through the
bearing-rein ring of the throatlash, hold-
ing the end of the cord, and as soon as
he is in the act of kicking give the cord
a jolly sharp jerk, and it will fetch his
head up quick and give him a rare
twitch ; rate him well with a sort of
yarrh I and after a few doses of this his
head will go up with the yarrh ! without
even pulling the cord. A ring at the
end of the cord is preferable to a cord

BREAKING 67

noose, In that you can relax the punish-
ment quicker, as you should the instant
he is a good boy. Punish your horse
quickly for wrong-doing, and as quickly
relax when the desired end is attained.
I have a rearing-bit for rearers, which,
with a fast martingale attached, presses
the top jaw uncomfortably, and answers
with some horses ; but the best cure I
know for rearing in riding-horses is to
shove them in harness, and when they
rear punish them with a severe whip
inside the thigh, which is the most vul-
nerable part of a horse. The secret of
exacting your wishes from a horse is to
cause, by whip, spur, or rein, the fact of
wrong-doing to become uncomfortable
or unbearable to him ; but the moment
he bends to your desire the pain must
cease, or he will never distinguish right
from wrong. Elephants are the easiest

68 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

animals to train, and them and dogs you
can punish for wrong-doing a certain
period after the offence, and they will
understand what it is for, but not so
a horse. It must be conveyed to the
latter animal in touch with the action.
You can whip your setter for running in
to fur, or your foxhound for riot, on his
return to the guns or the pack, and he
knows what it's for ; but if you whip your
horse for hitting his timber, it will only
cause him to rush at the next lot of rails
and go through them pell-mell. You
must fasten some timber, and line him
over so that if he hits it he will fall, and
he will take care of himself next time.

If a horse (an old hunter, for instance)
is a fair demon taking to his harness,
there is no more effectual remedy than
yoking him to a set of chain-harrows in
a big grass field with long gears. He

BREAKING 69

can kick and plunge to his heart's con-
tent till he tires ; he will hurt neither
himself nor you, and it settles him
splendidly. I made a good boy of that
grey from Burrough at this game before
I put him in my brake. Give them one
or two doses per day as the disease
varies. Mind their shoulders, though ;
nothing creates nappiness so quickly as
asking them to face pinched shoulders.
If young horses seem naturally averse to
facing a collar (or are collar-proud, as it
is termed), it is a good plan to line them
well in harness, with the collar fastened
tight to the breech-band, and a pair of
imaginary shafts in the shape of two
poles tied to his sides.

The American half-bred mustangs
they brought over in considerable quan-
tities a few years ago were most antago-
nistic to harness. I broke several out

70 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

of a lot I bought, and although I could
drive them myself, it took very little to
upset them, and they were never very
reliable. They were demons to strike
you at first. I used to cure them by
fastening two legs together, and by
galvayning them. They were very
hardy beasts, and I had two fairly good
hunters out of the lot.

Young horses always seem to go better
in a town than in the country at first;
there are so many strange sights in a
town to attract them, they seem lost In
wonderment, whilst In a country lane
they magnify the slightest unusual sight
Into an apparition. I used to drive fat
fresh four-year olds In the brake along
the Old Kent Road apparently unmind-
ful of anything, and the same horses
would have had fits at sight of a barrel-
organ in a country lane. The side

BREAKING 7 1

Streets of a town are capital for teaching
them to turn the shafts, they naturally
follow the bend of the road. Nothing
like a good double brake for bringing a
raw recruit to his bearings. Since get-
ting my spill the other day, I am more
than ever an advocate for a long-shafted
low brake, something like a milk float,
as against the high brake, as the sensa-
tion when they hook it with you in these
is the reverse of pleasant, and you are
** so long coming to the ground ! " when
you get turned over.

After your young horse has got
through his infant school days — i.e, just
quiet to ride and drive — a higher system
of education must commence, as really
good manners go such a very long way
towards successful sale.

Assuming, for argument's sake, you
have a high-class harness-horse, he will

T'i. THE MERRY GEE-GEE

now have to endure the martyrdom of
a big curb-harness bit, because they are
in vogue, and he must be fashionable,
or he will be nowhere ; he must be taught
to stretch out when he stands, and put
all the life and courage possible into
his action when in motion without break-
ing. If he throws his head up, he
must wear a martingale to his nose-band,
and he must wear a bearing-rein. I
am not an advocate for bearing-reins for
country wear, especially where hilly, but
in town it looks very bad form to see
a horse raking his head to the ground,
and standing too much at ease whilst his
owner stops to address a friend, or is
shopping ; and you can hardly keep a
young fiery horse whipped up to his bear-
ings without confusion. I believe the
foreigners excel us in the pains they
bestow in giving manners to their carriage-

BREAKING 73

horses; and one sees some splendidly
appointed turn-outs in the Champs
Elysees, for instance.

Now, if our youngster of three weeks*
or a month's tuition is to graduate for a
hunter, he must be taught the use of a
double-reined bridle, to open gates, stand
the crack of a whip, walk away from other
horses, and do all manner of things before
he will pass muster as an educated gentle-
man. During all this period, let him still
stick to the fast martingale adjusted to
the rings of the bridoon. I am a very
great believer in the efficacy of the
martingale. It causes the bit to play
on the bars of the mouth instead of
getting right up into their jaws in their
breaking days, and keeps them under
control later on. Captain Hayes Is a
great believer, too, in fast martingales ;
he, however, goes rather further than I,

74 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

and would hunt In them, and has in his
book snap-shot illustrations of horses
jumping fences In them, to prove they
do not Interfere with them w^hen properly-
adjusted. I grant all this when jumping
only an ordinary fence, but nevertheless
there are times in crossing a country —
when, for example, your horse has plunged
into an unjumpable drain, got partially
bogged, and a steep bank the other side —
when they certainly could not stretch
their necks and heads the requisite length
if the martingale was sufficiently tight
to be of use In other respects. I would
never put a curb on a young horse with
hounds till he knows his business fairly
well. Two snaffles and a running martin-
gale are best for some time ; a curb only
irritates him : let him get used to that In
his slow work at home.

I have had many arguments with

BREAKING 75

practical men as to whether the running
martingale should be on the curb or snaffle
reins. Lord Lonsdale, late Master of the
Ouorn, had nearly all his horses — hunts-
man, whips, and his own — ridden in
martingales on the curb-rein. Doubtless,
if a horse throws his head or star-gazes
when nearing his fence, the check of the
martingale is far more acute upon the
curb-rein than the snaffle, and a horse
will combat the resistance with greater
determination on the snaffle. Still, on
the other hand, if your horse shows temper,
and rears, and is nappy at leaving the
crowd, you are far more likely to pull
him over end with the martingale on the
curb, as it is the martingale-rein on which
you depend in such case. So there are
arguments for and against, and it is better
to keep an open mind than wax too dog-
matic ; but it is beyond question that

76 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

men should study more fully the adap-
tation of bridles to horses' mouths than
trying to force the mouth to any bridle.
Many older horses that have a season
or two's hunting experience in them, but
who, for all that, are of a hot and im-
petuous disposition, answer better in two
snaffles than a curb. The one makes a
dead pull, while the other you can draw
through his mouth a little, and thus stop
him. I have known horses that hardly
could be held in a curb-bridle, let it be of
the Mohawk pattern or what it might;
and there is a horse Frank rode jump-
ing a few times this summer who has
had the bone of his jaw fractured with
a big curb and long lever, and they say
no man can hold him in a curb, yet this
boy holds him comfortably in a crank
snaffle and a martingale.

The initiatory jumping-lessons given

BREAKING 77

the young hunter should be on the long
rein, and you want some assistance
unless you have properly made schooling
fences, as he must on no account be
allowed to know that there is any possi-
bility whatever of refusing. One suc-
cessful wrong step takes no end . of
counteracting, and once a young horse
of wilful disposition gets a knowledge
of refusing, it takes a capable and
determined horseman to cure him.

After putting knee-caps and bandages
on your horse, lunge him over a fixed
bar, putting it quite low and taking care
not to sicken him by going over too
often. Serve him the same over an
open ditch, and either a gorse fence or
small hedge. You will soon see whether
he is what is called a natural jumper,
going freely, jumping big, and seeming
to enjoy himself, or whether he is clumsy

78 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

at the game, nervous, and showing a
decided reluctance. In the former case
you may ride him alone over the jumps,
teaching him to turn and go over where
you want him ; but in the latter case you
will do well to have some one to give
you a lead, to lend enchantment and give
him confidence. Out hunting at first,
too, he may follow a lead for a while,
but not too long, or he will soon be
wanting to tear after every horse he
sees jump a fence. Ride him round and
round in circles, too, first one way and
then the other, when the crowd are
standing about at cover corners — it
teaches him to go exactly where you
want him instead of hanging on to other
horses ; and; be sure and mind he doesn't
kick any one or any of the hounds
that may come bounding out of the
fence close to his heels.

BREAKING 79

Whilst some people seem to have the
happy knack of doing the right thing
In the right place with horses, others
always do that which they ought not to
do. If I take a horse home which we
have been breaking, and say, *' Now, Mr.
So-and-so, we've brought your horse
back, and he goes right enough, but he's
got a particularly light mouth, which
Is sure to harden plenty In time. Let's
put him in your trap, and you can drive
him and see how he goes." We put him
in, and he takes the reins, and in spite
of what I've said as to his mouth. Instead
of speaking to him or clicking In the
usual way, he gives him a good old-
fashioned agricultural job in the mouth
with the reins to start with, which either
makes him rear or run back, and no
wonder. Or- — Illustration No. 2 — if I say,
^' Mr. So-and-so, I've had some bother

80 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

with the mare ; she's been a bit light
behind, but is all right now, so just play
the whip lightly on her neck or withers
when she requires it, till she gets warm
to her work.'* Dear old So-and-so, for-
getting or careless of all instructions, and
from long usage with t'owd mare in the
stable, gives her a friendly prod with
his ash plant just close to the roots of
her tail. Then the band plays.

CHAPTER IV

RIDING

If it were not for huntlnof and raclnfy,
it is fair to presume that, since the
immortal bike has come to hold supreme
sway, riding on horseback would become
obsolete — shown in circuses, perhaps, and
looked on as an old-world curiosity and
an example of semi-barbarous days in
picture-galleries a century or two hence,
and nothing more ; but, thank Heaven !
bikes can't jump yet, though the day
is possibly not far distant when the
scorchers will be seen at the tail of the
flying pack, just pressing a button as
8i G

82 THE iMERRY GEE-GEE

he charges a bullfinch or brook. They
will doubtless appear in this guise first
in Leicestershire or the Vale of Ayles-
bury, as there would be a possibility of
the wheels clogging, very likely, in the
Essex or Oakley clays.

I know it is very irreverent to cast
sneers at Dunlops and Coventrys, and
I could better endure them if they paid
a small duty, which might go to help to
defray the cost of the highways they now
partly monopolize. There is hardly an
M.P. but knows in his heart of hearts
this would be equal justice with dog,
gun, game, and trap licences, one would
imagine; but they must pander to the
scorching crowd, or they might be in
danger of losing their seats.

I may be an old-fashioned fool and
sceptical, but, candidly, I do often
harbour a great big doubt whether

RIDING 83

civilization is much of a boon, after all ;
whether people are any happier now
than they were in the mediaeval ages.
Statistics don't say we live any longer,
and it is questionable whether the old
barons and their yeomen and retainers,
who hunted, falconed, tilted, drew a long-
bow, fought their neighbours, lived on
venison and salmon, and toasted *' fayre
ladyes " in flagons of nut-brown October
ale, did not enjoy life as much as their
descendants of to-day. Menials might
have to eat oaten cakes and wild-boar
chops, but possibly it did their livers
no more harm than Bovril, tinned essence
of greasy cart-mare's leg, or German (?)
sausage. They missed telegraphy, ex-
cursions, and extra special editions, but
they comfortably evaded the water-rate
man, eight-day summonses, or bogus
share lists, and the temptation was not

84 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

placed under their very noses to lose
their money backing " stiff uns " on the
tape.

However, it's our bounden duty to
accept such entertainment as the gods
provide and our tastes incline to, and
to extract what fun we can while we
sojourn in this vale of tears ; and as there
are 1000 hunters conditioning in Melton
to-day, and Kirby Gate is within very
measurable distance, there will be a few
more gees bestridden, and a few more
novices want lifting in the pigskin, so
here goes.

If a boy is hardy and grubs well, as
boys generally do, and has plenty of
pluck, and keen on it, you may start him
riding at seven or eight, but if he is a
weakly sort and not over-keen, I should
delay his riding a few years later, till he
shows an eagerness for it and a desire

RIDING 85

to follow the hounds. Never frighten a
boy by making him ride a horse he
seems shy of, or making him ride bare-
back or without stirrups. Encourage
him, but don't force him. Make things
as comfortable as you can for him ; you
can quickly alter his style after a while,
when he becomes accustomed to the
sensation of riding and has confidence in
himself, because this time we are deal-
ing with an " animal " we can instruct by
talk and without curbs and martingales.
What a job I had to get Frank to
bump the saddle, till one day I tied his
pony behind a butcher's cart going a
twenty-mile round in the country, and
told him to "help himself!"

A few hours later, his mother was
going up the street, and saw Frank
coming back, trotting behind the cart,
his face beaming with smiles, and

86 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

bumping manfully. With a mother's pride,
she looked around to admire her boy.
Horror of horrors ! he had bumped the
seat of his knickerbockers clean away,
and It was nature's garb that clothed
him behind. The mater quickly pursued
her way, and disowned him instanter. He
was her Frank no longer In that uniform.

I hate squibbing ponies for boys to
ride hunting on ; give me an old hunter
that won't put a foot wrong, so long as
the child can hold him.

When Frank was nine, he went
absolutely straight to hounds on a
sixteen-hand horse. His mount had a
light mouth, and he rode him In a pretty
severe crank-snaffle, as, of course, he had
not much strength. I used to make
him take hold of his saddle behind
with first one hand and then the other
as the fences came ; that answered the

RIDING S'J

threefold purpose of keeping him from
getting a sideways seat, of teaching him
to handle his reins and whip in either
hand, and from flying about twenty
yards over his horse's head, as he must
otherwise have done. By degrees he
got to take hold occasionally, only at
big places and low drops, and as he
got older and stronger he left off alto-
gether. Never teach or allow your boy
to take hold of his saddle in front
under any pretence whatever.

Make a boy ride alternate days or
alternate weeks with the whip in reverse
hands. Later on, in riding nappy or
one-sided horses, or perhaps in finish-
ing a race, he should not experience any
more inconvenience from using his w^hip
in one hand than the other. When a
horse has a fixed determination to go
to the left, and his owner wishes him to

88 THE iMERRY GEE-GEE

go to the right, It looks awfully wooden
to see the rider throwing his whip over
with his right hand and making futile
attempts to hit the horse on the left.
One stroke from the whip in the right
place and at the right moment has more
effect on the horse than twenty wrong
ones. A horse lifts the quarter you hit
him on ; thus, if a horse rears, catch him
inside his thigh If you can ; and if he
kicks, catch him a crack under the jaw.

I am an advocate for the use of the
spur, as there are times when you cannot
use your whip, but can bring your spur
into play. For instance, you are riding
a sticky horse at a fence, the beggar is
trying to shirk it and bolt either way,
and it takes all your two hands to keep
him straight. Again, if a horse Is rear-
ing, and wants to go his own way, you
slide one arm round his neck to avoid

RIDING 89

pulling hlin '' over end " on you by the
bridle, spur him as hard as you can well
back and well under the flank on the
side you want him to go ; that will cause
him to turn his quarters from and his
head to the road you want to go. Be
sure and never pull your horse's mouth
when he is very straight up, as that
causes him to come over on you, and
these are nasty dangerous falls. By
sliding one arm round the neck you are
less likely to drop right under the saddle
if you do happen to all come over
together ; and it is generally the saddle-
pommel does the injury when you are
come over on.

Let us divide horsemanship under four
headings, please — Seat, Hands, Pluck, and
Judgment. No man is a perfect horse-
man who combines any three of these
minus the other.

90 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Seat. — The stirrup should be at such
a length that the leg from the knee
downwards is at about the same degree
of perpendicularity as the body. This is
a generally accepted old theory which
does to w^ork on, but with Archer (my
model jockey), who rode extra long, and
Tod Sloan riding extra short, one is in
a bit of a quandary. Let your boy pupil
ride rather long to begin with ; he can
shorten his leathers a hole or two in a
few years if he chooses, there is no set
rule. Do not force him to ride with his
toe in the stirrup ; at present he will feel
and be more secure with his foot home
in the stirrup, and can practise toe in and
heel down, a la inilitaire and the show-
ring, later on, and at his leisure,

A graceful seat in the saddle is not to
be acquired by rule of thumb — you can't
alter formation ; but keep your elbows to

RIDING 9 1

your side, and your hands down, and your
toes not too far stuck out, are useful re-
minders. Usually a man throws himself
too far back when jumping— he should go
a little more with his horse ; it is tiring
to the animal when partially distressed or
steeplechasing, and causes it to drag
with its hind legs.

Show-ring jumping is a science. Frank
can throw himself right back over a
low drop, hunting, and throw himself
right forward, whilst his head nearly
touches his horse's ears when in the
air over show fences. Get your show-
jumper in mid-air, and you should entirely
go forward with him, taking all weight
off the hind-quarters, or he may touch
with his hind legs, which will lose you the
prize in a close competition. Frank rides
Topthorne for Mr. Dodsworth of Notting-
ham (Doddy), so well known, and who

92 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

has won more jumping prizes than any
man living, and knows a bit. I have
heard Sir Gilbert Greenall, the present
master of the Belvoir, who is a Cheshire
man (as is also Dodsworth), say that the
latter is the very best man he ever saw
to hounds on a rough horse.

Topthorne has won several thousands

of pounds in show prizes, but you must

go right forward and not touch her mouth

one ounce once she rises to her fence,

or she will tip with her hind feet. This

seat takes some acquiring, and you had

better hug the mane a little first time

you try it. Once acquired, I believe you

can stick on better that way than leaning

back, as I have seen Frank come clean

through the wall, sometimes on novices,

and stop on the pigskin, when I, for

one, should have come off. If you do

get a fall this way, you have not so far

RIDING 93

'' to come " as when sitting back, and you
lose the " chuck '* from the horse's quarters,
hence the concussion is less ; and alto-
gether there is a lot to say for it except
at low drops, or when landing into furrows
and boggy ground.

You can soon teach a boy from the
plough-tail to stick on, because it hurts
him to fall, but what is a seat without
hands? — which denote the artist, and
which no one who has started riding
late in life can ever acquire. Riding
young horses helps to make hands
as much as anything; they answer to a
** silken thread" pull when their mouths
are nicely made. Talk about lifting
horses at their fences, as one often hears
— stuff and nonsense ! Just sit in a
clothes-basket and try to lift yourself
by the handles, or try playing at horses
like children with two strinofs and a

94 I'HE MERRY GEE-GEE

piece of stick in your mouth for a bit.
Some one suggests a jump. "All right,"
you say, ''but for goodness' sake don't
pull the string when I jump." The
hunter would say the same if he could
speak.

Mrs. Dudley Smith, who has had such
a good season show-jumping on her
charming mare Dainty Lass, told me she
learnt to loose her hands by riding with-
out any reins at all, and having an
attendant to lunge her horse over fences,
and I strongly recommend this course of
treatment to the bold horsemen who are
for ever mauling their horses' heads, and
their name is legion.

Mrs. Blockley, who is another fine
show-ring lady rider, has not been riding
this season ; but as her husband has
bought Omega, who is the acknowledged
champion at the game, she should be

RIDING 95

in strong evidence next season with
him and Alfred, who could win all over
with his fair owner for a pilot, but not
so with the stable lad up. I expect the
latter's hands are too heavy. Ladies
generally have good hands, and horses
rarely pull at them.

Alfred won ;^500 show-jumping last
year, and ^505 the year previous ; then
one hears people say, '*0h, but my
horse is too good for show-jumping!"
They are not good enough, they mean.
Eight hundred guineas were refused for
Alfred two years ago. You might take
Tom Firr's stud when in condition, and
there would not be a solitary one make
a clean round in a show-ring without
schooling.

Funny enough, they give the most
money for show-jumping all about the
Potteries district. There is ^100 to be

96 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

jumped for in two days at Shrewsbury
Floral Fete, and ;^50 In one day at
Keele Park, whilst at little village shows
they often give £1^ ^^^ ;^20 for first
prize. The Melton Mowbray Horse
Show boldly gives ^5 for first prize in
this the premier hunting country of the
world. "Hooray!" It is nearly all
high jumping and no water in Yorkshire,
except at the County Show, and all
hurdles and water and no gate in Lanca-
shire. You want to place your horse
accordingly.

I believe, if you have a very good
high jumper, it lowers them an inch or
two spreading them at w^ater — at least, it
does some. Irrespective of show-jump-
ing, I believe that common-bred horses
jump timber better than water. I have
seen cart colts stand and jump gates
when loose frequently, and quite ponies

RIDING 97

jump timber splendidly often enough at
shows, but they fail at water, and your
common horse in the hunting field who
makes a brilliant start soon wants his
fences " bringing to him " when they
run.

I wanted to put one of my little girls
up show-jumping this season, as they go
quite as well as Frank to hounds, but
my wife says she bosses the girls, and
v/ouldn't let me — says I shall be making
circus-riders of them, and all sorts of
funny things, so I had to give in, as
good husbands always do. I thought
the judges would be sure to hang a bit
to a young girl with her hair down her
back. They do hang to the ladies a
bit, these judges do, if they get half a
chance ; and sometimes, when I feel badly
treated, I say if we had one lady judge
amongst the three, the *'mere male"

II

98 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

competitor would stand a better chance.
I saw it mooted recently in one of the
papers that it was in contemplation to
organize a sort of central authority to
control agricultural and horse shows
throughout the country, and I cordially
agree with such a movement. It would
probably, in a minor degree, bear the
same relation to show committees as
the jockey club does to local stewards
of race meetings, and be a Court of
Reference for grievances on the part of
exhibitors, with power to blackball
fraudulent exhibitors from exhibiting at
any show '' under the rules."

A big grievance with exhibitors is
that some secretaries will take entries
with impunity for days after the adver-
tised time of closing, whilst others won't
budge an inch. This wants regulating,
and there should really be a hard-and-

RIDING 99

fast rule. Then, again, the want of
punctuality is annoying beyond measure.
You take a couple of jumpers to a show
a hundred miles off, "jumping to take
place at 3 p.m.," and make arrangements to
get away on business elsewhere or home
that night. Probably to suit the con-
venience of a judge, or from dilatoriness
on the part of the stewards, or from
some other reason which is no fault of
yours, the jumping does not come on
till 5 or 6 p.m. Result: another night's
expenses and subsequent business ar-
rangements thrown entirely out of gear.
Again, I would have a scale of points
for judging jumpers, as of a truth the
flagrant errors one sees are exasperating
beyond measure.

It is impossible to lay down any scale
for judging hunters or young stock, so
consequently this is the sort of thing one

lOO THE MERRY GEE-GEE

sees, and I can vouch for this case, as I
saw it myself this summer : At a certain
show there was a class for hunters on
the first day, in which A was placed
first, and B second, B also taking a first
in another class in which A was not
entered. Next day, with the same judges,
there was a medal or cup for the best
of the prize-winners in all classes. They
placed B first and A second. As the
blackguardly costermonger remarked when
his nicely arranged load of vegetables
was overturned by a passing hansom,
" Well, there zs no name for this lot ! " I
suppose the most charitable construction
one can place on such a decision is that
A had passed a bad night.

When you are showing hunters in a
ring, be careful to be guided by this
golden rule : keep one eye on your horse,
and the other on the judges. Never

RIDING lOI

mind your best girl on the stand or the
coach. Nurse and humour your horse
so that he may go smoothly and make
his best show when the judges' eyes are
on him. How tedious it sometimes be-
comes when judges of hunters ride each
selected horse two or three times round
the ring ! Certainly they should just
get up, because no man can properly
judge shoulders, balance, and ** feel '*
without; but if they can't tell sufficient
for the purpose with one ride round,
they are unfitted for their post, and
make the whole thing a bore to the
occupants of the stand and onlookers
generally.

I remember jolly old Sir John Astley
having a flutter at the water at the
Lincoln County Show once, with a cigar
a foot long in his mouth, and a parasol
for a whip. Splash he went in the

I02 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

water, and got what looked a fair cropper.
After picking himself and the parasol
up, it was seen he still had the cigar in
his mouth ; he had never left go of that.
The people did cheer. I believe this
yarn is in his book, but I've lent it to
somebody who hasn't returned it. Poor
Sir John ! he was one of the very best
of good sorts, and one of a type fast
becoming extinct. I knew him well,
and heard his memorable speech about
Ireland at the Owersley Ram Sale.
Some of the Irish members demanded
an apology when next the house met,
and his reply was, *' If they wanted
any satisfaction, they could name their
own ' tools/ " or something to that
effect.

I was helping Sir John one night at
one of his election meetings at an awfully
radical village. It was when Mr. Lay cock

RIDING 103

knocked him out for North Lincoln-
shire, and before the *' franchise" was
extended. They were a terrible rowdy-
lot at the lower end of the room, and
demanded his ideas on extending the
franchise. Sir John replied, '' I don't
mind anybody with any common sense
having a vote ; but before I'd vote for
a lot of hooting, howling devils like you

having it, I'd see you all first."

I thought they would have torn the
platform down ; it was grand fun, and
as we came out of the place they daubed
our coats with tarry sticks, etc., and
savoury eggs abounded.

I rode home in the brougham with
Sir John, who lighted his usual big cigar,
and as we neared the end of the village
half a brick came sailing clean through
both window-panes, and just took the
ciofar out of his mouth in its course.

I04 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

He laughed and said, ** Not half a bad
shot, was it ? "

Marvellous to relate, I believe Mr.
Chaplin was the only Conservative who
kept his seat in Lincolnshire at that time,
and the very next general election after
the extension of the franchise, they put in
nearly all Conservatives and turned the
Rads., who had given them the vote,
out. Moral: When you want something
you haven't got, be a Rad. and howl
while you get it; but when you've got
it, turn a respectable Conservative, and
try to keep it.

You can teach a young girl to ride
in ever so much less time than you can
a boy, because they are so much firmer
on their saddles when properly placed.
I strongly advocate once more the
martingale for ladies, as it is impossible
for them, from their high position on the

RIDING 105

horse, and the saddle-crutch and their
knee, to get their hands down as low
as a man. There is always the greatest
difficulty in getting ladies to keep their
shoulders square at first, but the real
secret of this is in fixing the foot and
stirrup properly. The stirrup should be
placed near the toes, only halfway home
under the instep, the heel slightly down,
and the stirrup tight enough to make
the knee as near as possible touch the
crutch; then by raising the heel when
jumping, or the horse bucking, it fixes
the leg in a tight vice under the crutch,
and your lady rider takes far more
bucking off than a man. If the foot is
right home in the stirrup, and the leather
a shade too loose, all fixity disappears,
the right shoulder goes forward, and the
victim of bad teaching twists sideways.
Captain Hayes has all these things

I06 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

photographed In his book, and a lot
of useful information about ladies' habits,
etc. When you are riding behind badly
taught ladies, you notice the foot with
the toe right down, and the sole of the
boot visible behind, and swinging to the
motion of the horse.

You can exemplify what I mean as to
this power of fixture by sitting in a chair
with your foot on the floor and the leg
perpendicular. Put weight on the knee
where the crutch goes, and endeavour
to raise the leg and foot altogether, as
you would if the stirrup were right
home in the foot, and you will find very
small power ; but by leaving the toes on
the ground as If the stirrup were there,
and raising the heel only, you will find
you can lift immense pressure — twenty
stones easily, I should say.

Properly fixed, you will have very little

RIDING 107

difficulty with your lady pupil, and by
riding alongside on the off and getting her
to keep turning her head towards you,
and throwing her left shoulder forward,
she will soon sit square. A lady should
not make any endeavour to throw herself
either backward or forward in leaping,
and it is well to just get her to take
hold of her saddle behind with her right
hand (just linking the fingers under
will suffice) ; then, after the first fence
or two, she will go like one o'clock.
I remember one of my girls going through
quite a good run first time she ever
jumped a fence ; and last season I taught
a lady to ride, and the sixth time she
was ever in the saddle she followed me
with the hounds and jumped quite
twenty fences.

It is quite extraordinary the idea some
novices have of the simplicity of jumping

I08 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

fences ; they get their ideas from pictures
and shopkeeper's coloured almanacks.
The other day a dream of youth and
beauty, to whom I was giving her third
lesson, asked me if I thought she could
jump quite a young river that flowed by,
after a few more lessons. When she was
cantering round the corner of the
meadow, I asked her to turn *' Paddy's "
head away from the fence, or very likely
he might want to jump it. She replied,
**she should love to do that, of all
things!" It was a big stake, and bound
with an ox-rail in front and a ditch far
side. What a fearful responsibility these
girls are !

Ladies who ride with the stirrup-
leather running round the bar and under
the horse, fastening to the saddle on
the off side, will require the leather
to be drawn tighter when they have been

RIDING 109

on some little time, as the horse's back
goes down and the girths relax. I
am in favour of this adjustment, as by
pulling from the far side it helps to keep
the saddle in place. Where a safety
bar and fixed stirrup only is used, the
girths will still require tightening, or
sore backs will ensue. My girls ride any
fresh horses I happen to buy straight
off; I never find the horses take much
exception to the novelty. But there is
just a danger of a horse rolling when
standing about the first few times, with
the extra tightness of ladies' girths and
the novel pressure of the stirrup-girth,
which is further back than they have
been accustomed to.

My third essential towards the " com-
plete horseman," viz. Plucky conveys
its own meaning pretty well. If you
are short of it you can buy some —

no THE MERRY GEE-GEE

not in the form of penny packets
at the chemist's, though; It is sold In
bottles and by" the glass at hotels and
other dens of iniquity, and Is called
"cherry brandy," ''orange gin," "moun-
tain dew," and by various other well-
known titles. But these bought varieties
evaporate quickly, leaving the patient
weak and debilitated, and I should
strongly advise such as are minus the
real article to ride bikes, or, what may
be preferable In such case, tricycles ; or,
perhaps even better still, to run a sturdy
cob in a tub-cart, with suitable refresh-
ments for the hungered and athirst who
have been riding nasty horrid horses. I
think nerve is really a better term than
pluck, as the latter Is liable to be there
without the former, something after this
kind. Pluck and Nerve come up together
In a nasty ugly corner, having chanced

RIDING I I I

to get wide of the rest of the field, with
a regular yawner ahead and no option
but to have a flutter.

After a cursory glance from ■ both,
" Pluck " rams his hat tight, and with a
^' Here o^oes the last of the Cardiofans"
sort of air, flails his horse at it at a
tremendous pace (right ofl" his legs, in
fact), and, just failing to reach the far
bank, takes an imperial cropper the other
side. " Nerve," who had simultaneously
taken his own line, gliding up to another
part of the fence, and holding his gee
well together for a final effort, and, with
just one reminder as he rose to the
occasion, lands by the skin of his teeth,
but with nothing to spare.

There are hundreds, and even thou-
sands of men who, having the first three
of my qualifications in a more or less
degree, are almost utterly devoid of

112 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

yzidgment. To commence with, they
gallop most of the way to cover on their
first horse, who (sweating freely) they let
stand at the cover corner, for they were
late at the meet, and he contracts a
chill to start the day with. As soon as
hounds run, they continually jump the
wrong side of every fence that faces them
at right angles, taking on the plough
where they might have had the grass.
With hounds feathering half a field ahead,
and a doubt as to whether they had run
heel a few yards, they go blundering over
the wide drain with the rotten bank far
side a little to the left. They are no
sooner over than the second whip's
halloa back to the right compels them
to jump back, with the rotten bank on
the take-off side. They never pick the
furrow down the long plough-field ; they
bucket their horse the first quarter of

S3H3C^

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cc I an

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:eec

114 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

very much more than others, it is wise
to take this preventative, especially in a
grass country, where the going is often
very greasy and slippery.

CHAPTER V

FORWARD AWAY

I WAS duly entered to hounds at the age
of eight in the Burton country in Lincoln-
shire, which at that time also included
the present Blankney country, and would
stand eight or nine days a week com-
fortably, being of vast area and dotted
with some of the finest strongholds for
the vulpine race to be found in these
isles. From that day to this I have
steadfastly, and without one moment's
doubt, entertained the belief that fox-
hunting was the best fun under the
broad canopy of heaven, the healthiest
115

Il6 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

pastime, the field in which the most
lasting friendships are cemented, and in
which the best instincts of the genus
homo are fostered. A manly sport in
which peer and peasant participate on
a level footing, and which leaves no
disagreeable after-taste.

The Burton country has been hunted
by some of the most illustrious masters
whose names adorn the pages of hunting
lore : Osbaldeston, Assheton Smith, Sir
Richard Sutton, and (at the time I
entered, and not the least notable) old
Lord Henry Bentinck. He was a mar-
vellous man. He would ride thirty miles
from Welbeck of a morning, hunt all
day, and go like blazes, and at odd times
has been known to hack back at night.
Being somewhat of a martyr to gout, he
ate only one meal a day, and hated
women and Sundays — the latter because

FORARD AWAY II7

It deprived him of a seventh part of
his hunting. He was a shrivelled, thin,
hard-looking, little old man, and I have
never yet set eyes on another who
looked so much as if he had been
born on horseback, and never been off
all his life.

He had a very squeaky voice ; and
many's the time I and some mates have
galloped past him on our ponies in a
muddy ride, and splashed him well on
purpose to hear him swear. He used
to sort of squeal the words out; it was
lovely to hear them float on the breeze
as we made tracks round the corner
pretty sharp. He was a gallant and
enthusiastic old sportsman, and rode the
very best of blood-hunters of the com-
pact type. Lord Henry died at Tath-
well, an outlying estate of Mr. Chaplin's,
after shooting one day; and there v/as

Il8 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

not a particle of food inside him at the
autopsy-— he literally died of starvation
through being over-abstemious. Mr.
Chaplin hunted the whole country after
Lord Henry's death, and soon after that
it was divided.

I quite agree with what Cusstance
says in his delightful book, that Mr.
Chaplin was the best welter-weight he
ever saw cross a country. He must
have ridden some seventeen stones in
those days, and never swerved from his
line an inch, always riding grand weight-
carriers. It*s very notable how a man
who can afford it, and is a judge, sets
up a special type of hunter as his fancy
dictates.

Lord Lonsdale had my beau ideal
type of Leicestershire hunter, both for
himself and the Quorn-hunt servants.
Big reaching blood-horses, with bone

FOR'ARD AWAY II9

that for appearance would not have been
disgraced In a Grand National field.
They were nearly all dark chestnuts,
with hog manes and long tails. Un-
docked horses are all the rage just now
— It s the whim of the hour ; and I see
the Hunter's Improvement Society have
laid down a law that all foals are to be
undocked henceforth and for ever.

Most little men like an upstand-
ing blood-horse (think it gives them a
more commanding appearance, I suppose),
but there are exceptions ; and Captain
Warner, ex-master of the Ouorn, and
Mr. Henry Mllner, are two I call to
mind who generally rode rather under-
sized horses from choice. I notice the
Duke of Marlborough, who hunts here,
is going in entirely for greys. Nothing
carries '' pink " to greater advantage than
a white grey, in my opinion; but being

I20 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

a little conspicuous, you are always liable
to be chaffed by your friends if you
have hoisted the "white feather" on the
white horse ** within sight.'*

You want a shorter-coupled horse in
a heavy clay country, and where there
is a superabundance of plough, than in
galloping grass countries like Leicester-
shire and Meath, where speed is so
highly essential. I must admit to liking
a hunter with a fair amount of action in
his trot, and, although a thorough horse-
man can enjoy a run on a ewe-necked
one, or one which carries his head right
near the ground, providing it goes on,
stays, and keeps jumping clean all day,
it is really pleasanter riding a horse
which, without being peacocky, carries
its head well up. I like a horse you
can **see coming a good long way off"
when he is walking or trotting towards you.

FOR'aRD away 121

I must take this opportunity to correct
an erroneous Impression pretty widely in
circulation, to the effect that weedy horses
which look incapable of carrying a medium-
weight man will do to carry a lady.
Nothing of the sort. Ladles take more
carrying than men, and want strong-
backed horses. In the first place, their
saddles are far heavier ; but it is the fact
that they are all the time in one position,
and the weight concentrated on one par-
ticular pressure, that tires so much. A
man turns half round often enough, and
sits on one thigh occasionally, stands
in his stirrups at times, and frequently,
and with good judgment, too, gets off
his horse altogether after a short burst
for a few minutes. Every shooting-man
knows what a relief it is to set down one's
gun at lunch-time, or to change shoulders,
or hand to a servant after standing long

122 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

at the cover corner ; so it is a relief to
the hunter to have the weight reHeved
or set down for a while ; but ladies'
hunters get none of this, so we may at
once dispel the idea that weak-backed
weeds are any good for them to ride.

Referring for a moment further still to
ladies' hunters, it is highly essential their
heads should be set at the right angle.
Boring and ewe-necked and high-backed
horses give a most uncomfortable sensation
to a lady from her high position on the
saddle, and give an impression to them
that they will be off over their heads
unless they are careful. Get a horse
with his head nicely " set on," not " hung
on," his shoulders well placed, and his
back and loins strong, but not unduly
high, and you have a model-topped horse
for a lady.

Shoulders are far the most difficult

FORARD AWAY I 23

part of a hunter to judge. Many people
think that if a horse has a high thin
wither, his shoulders are lovely, but that
does not follow at all. Thin withers
are usually weak, and I don't mind some
little thickness and a trifle of width there,
so long as the shoulder goes well back
at top ; it only denotes strength. The
shoulder-point should be fairly forward,
and well defined, and must not give the
appearance from the front view of being
what we call " bullock-chested." Stand-
ing at the side, look where the girth will
sit ; there must be depth and fullness here
in the heart place, and a horse in con-
dition must carry the girth well back
from his elbows, or else there is something
wrong with the mechanism, and they won't
work with that elasticity which gives
such a delightful ride.

A horse with good shoulders and good

124 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

galloping quarters is a long horse with
a short back. His length wants to be
derived from his quarters and the placing
of the shoulders. Let a man fancy
himself ever so good a judge of shoulders,
he cannot quite tell how the machinery
will work till he gets up. Then you
will soon know, especially if you ride
over ridge and furrow or downhill.

In buying horses off a dealer, a gentle-
man has so many more facilities for trial
than he has in buying one by auction at
the Repository, in which case, unless he
happens to know the horse, he is work-
ing blindfold as to his manners and
capabilities. A dealer, however, who
buys at the Repository has many strings
to his bow. If he buys a horse to suit
a certain customer, and it fails to hit
the mark, it will doubtless suit some one
else. Moreover, the gentleman who buys

FORARD AWAY I 25

off a dealer can, as a rule, on finding
the horse hardly fulfils expectations in
some trifling way, exchange it for another,
but not so at the Repository. I am quite
certain that, without the slightest exagge-
ration, I frequently see horses knocked
down at 200 and 300 guineas at the
Repository sales that, if brought back the
following week under another name, but
with every imaginable guarantee it is
possible to devise, would not make thirty-
five guineas. Gentlemen buy owners'
names, not the horse, at the Repository.
I have, had some capital deals out of
Repository horses, and no end of bad
ones.

Here's a case of how prices fluctuate
without any apparent cause. A year
last spring a horse called Bantam went
up in a swell stud from Melton to the
Leicester Repository, and was sold for

126 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

1 80 guineas. In the autumn he came
up to the same place again, with the same
description exactly, and I bought him
for 15 guineas. This is the horse Frank
rode his first chase at Leicester, as pre-
viously recorded, and I sold him after
the race for 48 guineas. Last week
"as ever was," he came again to the
Leicester Repository and made 148
guineas ; and cheap enough, too, as there
are few better hunters, and he is quite
one of the right sort to look at.

About four years ago I bought a great
banging four-year-old, also at Leicester,
and also at 15 guineas. He had no
description except his pedigree ; and
whilst being shown he took the liberty
of playfully kicking the rail in half just
near the rostrum, and only just missed
my head. I suppose that was partly why
he came so cheap. He was a comical-

FORWARD AWAY 12 J

tempered beggar at first, but soon came
to all right, and we hunted him a bit ;
and finding he was useful, I ran him in
a hunt steeplechase within six weeks.
A gentlemans son who lives not a
thousand miles from here saw him one
day, and bought him off me for £2>o, if
he passed his vet., and I sent the horse
over to be examined next day ; but he
came back with a most insulting letter
from the buyer, asking me what I took
him for, and all that sort of thing, and
declaring I must have known the horse
made a noise, and enclosing V.S. certifi-
cate to that effect. Two or three days
after, I knocked up against another
gentleman in the Birdcage at Newmarket,
who, having seen him run in the steeple-
chase, asked me the price, and I said
£12,0, He said, "Well, Til take him
if he passes -^^--," naming one of the

128 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

leading Newmarket vets. I saw the
horse examined, and was somewhat re-
lieved when, after giving him a rare
pipe-opener, the vet. pulled up, saying,
" Well, he's sound In his wind ; that's one
thing." He passed all right, and so it
was not an ill wind that blew my first
customer to one side. Last time I saw
the gentleman who bought the horse,
he asked me if I had some more like
him, as he had sold him for ^450.

I am not a V.S., but I have more confi-
dence in my own trial of wind than theirs,
with a few exceptions I know of. In
Its incipient stages, you cannot always
detect roaring from a strong gallop.
Merely the gentlest canter down a shady
hedge-side, so the rustle of the wind
doesn't drown it, and in other cases the
" band won't play " without extreme ex-
ertion. Tracheotomy Is useful for chasers,

FORARD AWAY I 29

and has beneficial effect, but it Is too
big a nuisance for the ordinary hunter.

The very grandest stud of weight-
carriers I ever saw were the late Mar-
quis of Waterford's, who came over to
Brocklesby to stay with Lord Yarborough
when the agrarian malcontents stopped
hunting in his own country and drove
him and his hounds away. A wonderful,
chatty, nice man Lord Waterford was,
with all the characteristic gameness of
the Beresfords in him. I was farming
just inside the Burton country, on
the borders of the Brocklesby, at that
time, and the Burton met at my house
once a month or so.

One day Lord Waterford came over
to hunt with the Burton with us, and we
had the fastest twenty-five minutes on
record from Fen Wood back to my place.
The beaten fox tried to scale the high

K

130 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

garden wall, but the leading hound
pulled him back by the tag. However,
after a roll over, he succeeded in scaling
the wall, and the hounds, all following,
clean knocked over two young children
of mine who were at play the other side.
We killed the fox in the garden, and
Lord Waterford "blooded" those two
young ones, who, I regret to record,
both died of diphtheria a couple of years
later. I have kept that fox's mask,
although I have been sold up stick and
stone once or twice since then. No man
is fonder of his children than I, and out
of fifteen I still have eleven amongst
which to divide my affections.

There's another fox's mask facing me
as I write — a memento of the very best
run I ever saw. It was in the winter of
'79-80. We had two tremendous long
frosts, with an interval of about two

FORWARD AWAY 1 31

weeks between, and I never saw hounds
run as they did those two weeks. They
met at my house again on this occasion ;
and, after a muddling gallop from my
cover in the morning, we found another
fox in a small cover not far away. I
have never seen a fox break cover
before or since as this old warrior did —
not creeping out, as foxes generally do ;
he flew the stake and bound hedge half-
way down the cover at a bound, and
made straight for the open.

We made a fourteen-mile point on
the map, and killed beyond Brigg. It
was a lovely kill in the centre of a big
grass-field, and we numbered seven all
told. Will Dale, the huntsman, Joe
Clixby, and I jumped the last fence
abreast just as they pulled this best of
good foxes down. "The brush. Will!"
we simultaneously cried ; but it was a

132 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

dead heat, so we tossed. Of course I
lost, so Joe took the brush, and I the mask.
Poor Billy Parr, a friend who has since
joined the majority, rolled over down
the railway bank just before we finished,
and knocked his teeth out on the metals.

I rode a small blood mare through this
run that looked quite two stone under
my weight, and the ground was very
heavy, but she kept skimming along as
only blood ones can. Who has not
experienced this pleasing sensation, when
hounds have been running an hour, and
the common-bred horse Is in a ditch-
bottom, and has to be flogged out, while
your better-bred one manages to negotiate
those trappy places with ever a leg to
spare ?

Only four days after this great run
we had another almost as good, getting
right into a country where hounds had

FOR'ARD AWAY 1 33

never been seen before, finishing at
Messingham, near the Trent. Mr.
Foljambe was master in those days —
quite a model of the fine old English
gentleman of the old school, not the
class who thought it the exclusive privi-
lege of their high office to *' blow a horn
and curse their friends," as an old adage
says, but the acme of courtesy and good
sportsmanship combined. One of his
ancestors used to hunt in a trap after he
was blind, and it is said that he knew the
note of every individual hound perfectly.

Old Colonel Forester, the father of the
Melton hunt, if not of the Turf as well,
up to his decease last year, was not far
short of being blind, but he went great
guns to the finish, and led his second
horseman (who rode close up) a rare
dance, as he couldn't see what he was
riding at, and didn't care much, either.

134 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

What a game old boy he was, to be
sure !

Will Dale, our huntsman, who is now
with the Badminton, was absolutely the
finest man I ever saw cross a country,
and the best huntsman into the bargain.
It was a sight to be remembered to see
the quick, smart way in which he would
come out of Wickenby Wood with twenty
couple, almost atop of his fox. This
said Wickenby Wood was a rare fox-
stronghold, and in Lord Henry's time
was never once drawn blank in ten
seasons. There's Stainton Wood, too,
not far off, a marvellous home for foxes.
I remember one New Year's Eve we ran
into it late in the afternoon, and counted
thirteen foxes on foot.

Dale said, if there was only a moon,
he'd have hunted the old year out and
the new year in. Next morning (New

FORARD AWAY 1 35

Year's Day), I so well remember, we met
at Clay Bridge, where I was married,
and, finding in this same cover in three
minutes, ran a sixteen-mile point to
Normanby-on-the-Wolds, where I was
born.

I was very nearly completing the
** treble event" by being buried in that
run, too, within a mile or two of the
finish, as my mare, who was getting
very beaten, put her foot in a rabbit-
hole, cantering alongside a deep narrow
brook. We turned a somersault, and
I lay under the mare on my back, who
was also on her back. My legs were
jammed, and they daren't lift the mare
for fear she should damage me in her
struggles ; so I lay, with the water running
down my back, in the cooling stream,
whilst they dug the bank away and
hauled me out. From that day to this

136 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

I have, periodically, the most excruciating
muscular rheumatism and lumbago — but
less often as time goes on.

Will Dale's motto was, ** Best fox first
away, and after him as quick as you can."
His hounds always displayed that very
good sign of seeming so fond of him,
and, my word, didn't he take some
stopping! Such a cheery chap, too, he
was, and always a pleasant word for the
country-people — which goes a long way.
If you want to make hunting popular,
give the madding crowd on foot and
wheels a show now and then, when
circumstances seem to demand ; you don't
lose much. I don't believe In the auto-
cratic master who is for ever trying to
elude a few onlookers.

I saw the other day, in the memoirs
of Bismarck (most patriotic of statesmen),
that he was credited with the remark

FORARD AWAY 137

that the happy moments of our life, all
told, didn't amount to twenty-four hours.
Bismarck, though, had never tasted the
sweets of riding our vale after an after-
noon fox, with a few remnants of the
field and Will Dale, or he would never
have given expression to this belief.

For one hour and fifty minutes over
a grand country, nearly a straight line,
and all the fences wanting jumping !
Lovely to see those bitches work and
drive! Now they twist and turn. Our
fox is sinking, and he's out of his latitude.
Yonder he goes, Will, in the grass-field
on the hillside, by the clump of trees.
We must have this brook. Hold up, old
man ! That's over ; but there's more to
come that will stand no liberties, and
still they're running on. He sobs and
reaches, does my generous steed, but
he's by Chanticleer, dam by old Hark-

138 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

away, and very fit. Who- whoop at last !
Those were halcyon days ! Why, oh,
why will they not return ?

I am not too ambitious, but without
some of that commodity you*re nowhere.
I have no ardent ambition to be a
millionaire. There have been four or
five of those jokers either commit suicide
or gone broke this very year. I enter-
tain a strong conviction that the happiest
are those who just acquire a nice little
bit more wealth than they start with,
and not too much. About ;^20,ooo
would fit me to a nicety, and back in
the old home. The little farmer of 100
acres who presently becomes master of
200 acres is happy ; so is the mechanic
or artisan who builds a house and pays
for it, or who, having two or three
houses, plays them up into a nice little
row of houses. Not much pleasure in

FORARD AWAY 1 39

owning houses, to my mind. You can't
ride 'em, and they won't jump a country.
Tastes differ, and a good job too.

But to return to the hunting. I re-
member a funny thing happening one
day to Dale and myself. We were walk-
ing over a high arched old brick bridge,
going to draw Buslingthorpe Wood.
When on the top the old bridge broke
in, and we all went splash into the
water with eight or nine couple of
hounds. My word, what a clatter and
a splash there was! I came out of the
water and dibris with his horse one
side, and he came out with mine the
other. Nobody hurt much, though, and
it's all in the fun. Dale got very few
falls, but pretty bad ones when he did ;
always stuck on as long as he could, if
it was in a brook-bottom.

I remember one morning he came to

140 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

my place to go and have a day with
the Brocklesby, and he remarked, ** This
is my 10 1 St day out this season, and I
haven't had a fall yet." Shortly after
this he broke his thigh very badly. Good
horsemen don't get many falls, but have
to take their whack as the fickle goddess
dictates.

Mr. Shrubb — another master, who now
hunts a pack down South — was a good-
hearted sort of man, and his only crime
was that he was born south of the
Thames, which — ridiculous as it may
seem — is unpardonable in the eyes of
some north-countrymen. He had a
ringing voice, very well calculated, like
John Peel's, either to "awaken the dead,
or the fox from his lair in the morning."

Mr. Wemyss, who hunted our country
twice, and was quite young when he
came the first time, was just the most

FORARD AWAY I4I

reckless horseman I ever set eyes on.
He'd a heart as big as the proverbial
bucket, and pluck by the cart-load. He
used to start off cubbing soon after twelve
midnight, and land home to kennel about
four the following afternoon, looking fresh.
He would take his five or six falls daily,
and seem to revel in them, but toned
down a lot later on, and was quite a
model M.F.H. I should like to see him
back in the old country again. We had
an extraordinary good run cubbing one
day during his rdgime, running from
Magin Moor to Ingleby, quite a ten-mile
point. I and some friends had been
shooting all day before, playing cards all
night, and took this lot on before break-
fast, so that was quite a good innings.

Some men take no pleasure in cubbing.
Too slow, they say ; don't care for It till
the opening meet. With such I have

142 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

no sympathy. There's pleasure in know-
ing where cubs abound, and in seeing
the young entry take to their quarry, and
in getting your new purchase from
Tattersall's nicely to your hand; while
to one who loves and admires nature,
what is more beautiful than woodland
scenery bathed in richest autumn colours
and tints, and the awakening of bird and
animal life as cheerily breaks the smiling
morn? The man who trudges from his
cradle to his grave, blind or indifferent
to the impressive beauty of nature, misses
something, and for such a one I have
lumps of pity and a smattering of
contempt.

I generally had one or two farming
pupils about this time, and we enjoyed
life immensely, hunting, shooting, and
coursing, and the good things of this life
in general. One of these said pupils

FORARD AWAY 1 43

was a rum fellow — of town the towniest.
As soon as he could hold on over a
fence at all, we took him out hunting,
of course. Bond Street had turned him
out regardless, but taking five croppers
the first day like a man rather upset him,
and coupled with the fact that he had
taken sundry neat brandies en route, he
was a nice object when we started for
home. Oh, what a cold night that was !
so we called at a good-hearted farmer's
for some more brandy. I think he
mixed the brandy with gin instead of
water, as it sat very warm and comfort-
ing. Walking up the next hill, I noticed
our hero beginning to wobble a bit, and
when we arrived at the top he muttered,
" Letsh rache ! " and over the hedge
he went, we after him. There was a
gorse cover two fields ahead, but he never
saw it, and we shouted, " Go on, Charlie ;

144 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

you'll win ! " His mare jumped the fence,
and stopped short in the ride, and I can
see Charlie's legs and coat-tails now, as
he took a header Into the gorse and
bramble bush. We got the remains home
somehow, but he was In sticking-plaster
for many days. Charlie's father was con-
nected with the Turkish embassy In some
way, and the sultan sent him over a
small sack of the most lovely tobacco,
which landed ultimately at our place.
I have respected the sultan ever since,
in spite of the very playful manner in
which he humbugs our Foreign Office.

Red-letter days used to come thick and
fast, and what fun we had one spring with
the puppies ! I reckon my father and
I have just about walked a pack of
hounds, but I have been most unlucky
in getting runners with the pack — dis-
temper, twisted legs, or something always

FORARD AWAY 1 45

sure to go wrong. However, at this time
I had a couple showed a delightful capa-
bility to hunt any mortal thing, and as
three or four neighbours had some too,
we used to make a pack, assisted by
three or four shepherd dogs, and about
a dozen terriers. We generally hunted
a drag, but more often hares, and one
day, I blush to relate, we had twenty-five
minutes after a fox. Of course, we had
a horn, and all that, but they were a most
unruly crew. The end of that pack was
that two or three malcontents, headed by
a neighbouring parson, who farmed his
own glebe, advertised in the local paper,
warning off all persons and dogs other
than those who hunted with a recognized
pack.

Two of the best sporting farmers in
our country were Mr. Carnley, father of
the present owner of Norbury Squire,

L

146 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

and Mr. William Nicholson of Wlllough-
ton. They both rode in well-weathered
scarlet and hunting-caps. Mr. Carnley
would ride his fifteen miles to cover, and
hunt all day, not distressing himself much ;
but let hounds run towards Torrington of
an afternoon, and see if he wouldn't be
there ! He was one of the cleverest at
a tricky place I ever saw. Old Lord
Henry always asserted Mr. Nicholson
was the best man he ever set eyes on to
hounds.

Speaking of hunting-caps, what a com-
fort they are compared to the abomin-
able pot-hat ! but nothing else is admis-
sible now, and you must be fashionable or
you are nowhere, especially in this metro-
polis of hunting, where it is terribly
infra dig, to evince even the least enthu-
siasm after anything. If you have had
the run of the season, the most you may

FORWARD AWAY 1 47

Utter is, '' Not bad gallop " or " Decent
thing ; '* and if you pass a fellow going
to cover who tells you he has got a
" fresh crock " — gave Hughie Overton
;^6oo for it the night before last at
Spider's dinner, the most you must say
is, " Ah ! useful sort of beast." So wags
the world and the people in it, and
there's a ruling fashion even in a shake
of the hand or the way in which you
say ta-ta.

Kirby Gate, the time-honoured meet
which heralds the Leicestershire hunting
season, is a sight for the gods : 500
horsemen mounted on such cattle as
you could not see excelled anywhere in
the wide world, their masters irreproach-
ably tailored and groomed ; about 100 of
the fairest of the fair, the majority in their
pale-blue silk Quorn Hunt collars, with
just a fetching peep of scarlet waistcoat.

148 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

As this " glad throng goes marching
along" from Kirby Gate to Gartree Hill,
they are accompanied by a tremendous
string of traps of every conceivable
description, extending some miles, amid
clouds of foot-people.

Tom Firr, the Ouorn huntsman, is a
man who stands right out by himself, so
to speak, and I look upon him as quite
one of the institutions of the country,
he has hunted so long and with such
marked ability ; a perfect horseman
and huntsman, who, although he has
faced the music so many seasons, and
had so many bad falls, goes as well as
the best of them yet.

The difficulty of hunting a country like
this is naturally very much enhanced by
the crowd being so great, and the crush
on leaving cover in the Monday and
Friday country Is fearful. There Is no

FORARD AWAY 1 49

breathing-room, and till you get quit of
the surging mass you are continually
getting wedged and jostled — most likely
by some over-fed stockbroker who sub-
scribes his 250 guineas or perchance
his 25 guineas per annum to the fund.
All right, my particular old enemy, I'm
well charged with a fresh volley of ex-
pletives for the season, and next time
you shove me on to the catch of the
gate or cut in at the only gap, there'll
be music in the air.

There are but two classes of society
who can really afford to be totally inde-
pendent, viz. those who have more money
than they know what to do with, and
those who have none ; and this pet aver-
sion of mine and myself are fair ex-
amples of both.

The country here {except the glorious
Vale of Belvoir) is so undulating that

150 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

unless you are almost on the top of the
hounds you can*t see them work, and that
to my mind is a deprivation of one of the
principal charms of the chase. Out of a
field of 500 here, though, I don't suppose
more than about 100 care a hang what
the hounds are hunting, and another
hundred would prefer they never found
at all. Still, there are a few who really
go, and don't half go, either; but the
majority are assisting only at a social
function, inhaling pure oxygen, and get-
ting an appetite for their dinners.

A young swell is hardly properly
entered till he has done a Melton season,
I presume ; but for young Archibald,
Plantagenet, Trevelyan, Browne (son of
old Jasper Brown, of Peckham Rye), I
should recommend Leamington, Chelten-
ham, or Leigh ton Buzzard. We are a
bit ultra down here, but less so than of

FOR ARD AWAY I 5 I

old, and likely to get less so still, as
the world gets more democratic every day,
and there's a beastly commercialism in
the air, breathe where one may.

IVe just remembered a yarn about old
Bob Oliver, a gruff, hard-riding old farmer,
who farmed his own land, had hunted
three or four days a week all his life, was
undisturbed by mortgages or overdrafts,
and not overburdened with civility or
courtesy.

One day there appeared on the scene
Lord Wodehouse of Wodehouse, who was
staying with Squire A. in the Brocklesby
country. Hounds found in due course,
and it was easy to see by the way they
spoke and ran it was a scenting morning,
and a good run was in store. Lord Wode-
house of Wodehouse blocked the way at
the gate at the end of the ride, and after
several wasted seconds in a futile attempt

152 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

on his part to open it, Bob (whose
patience was exhausted) gave him a bit
of a shove, and said, " For God's sake let
somebody come as can undo it." When
they ultimately pulled down their fox,
his lordship asked his host. Squire A.,
who that disagreeable old chap was. The
reply was, " Oh, only old Bob Oliver —
rare old sportsman, but a bit odd ; wants
handling, that's all." His lordship, think-
ing to put matters right, went up to our
hero and said, ''Mr. Oliver, I believe ;
and I'm pleased to make your acquaint-
ance ; but really you were a bit rough on
me coming out of the wood this morning,
but perhaps you might not know I'm Lord
Wodehouse of Wodehouse, and staying
at the Hall." Bob stared a second or
two, and then said, "You may be Lord
Wodehouse of Wodehouse, or you may
be Lord Outhouse of Outhouse, for aught

FORARD AWAY 1 53

I know, but you're a damned bad hand
at a gate."

This took place thirty-five years ago
up our way, and I saw it repeated in
the Sporting Times a year or two ago.
I've the greatest respect for the Pink
Un, where one sees a new-laid joke
worth repeating occasionally, and the
soundest and best of Turf lore.

Mr. Rawnsley, Master of the Southwold,
IS quite one of the most successful amateur
huntsmen of the day, and has carried
the horn now many seasons. The
Southwold is a good sporting country, and
I used to hunt with them generally one or
two days a week years ago, notably during
Captain Fox's mastership, with old Dan
Berkshire as huntsman. Dan had a rare
voice, but always seemed in a bustle ;
he was remarkably clever, though, at
hunting the big woods on the Linwood

154 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Side of the country. Captain Fox was
always well mounted on a good class
of horse, but never jumped the nasty
obstacles. He was the most courteous of
men, and would raise his hat to a tramp
if the tramp raised his.

Speaking of amateur huntsmen (who
are not always an unmixed blessing), we
must not omit Mr. J.Maunsell Richardson
of Brocklesby fame, dual winner of
the Grand National on Disturbance and
Reugny, one of the best cross-country
gentlemen riders at that time, quite one
of the nattiest and best all-round horse-
men in England to-day. After winning
his last National on Reugny, whom he
trained himself in Brocklesby Park, there
was a split in the stable camp over
which Captain Machell was the presiding
genius, and Mr. Richardson relinquished
silk for e*er and aye. Later on he

FORARD AWAY 1 55

married Victoria, Countess of Yarborough,
and has hunted periodically, and been
alternately field-master of, the Brocklesby
hounds ever since.

Old Mr. Alec Goodman was likewise
one of the foremost gentlemen riders of
his day, and is now quite an old man. I
saw him going wonderfully well to hounds,
though, only a few years ago. He won
three Grand Nationals, on Salamander,
Miss Mowbray, and Alcibiade, I think,
without reference. He invariably made
the running, and rode twenty-eight times
over the Liverpool Grand National course
without a fall — a truly marvellous and
unique performance, and a contrast in
horsemanship to some examples here,
where you can see five-and-twenty falls in
five-and-twenty minutes any hunting
morning from Walton Thorns or Holwell
Mouth. I know three generations of Alec

156 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Goodmans now living, and gave young
Alec, the grandson, his first mount on
a horse I ran at Huntingdon about four
years ago.

Everybody ought to see the Brocklesby
hounds, which are, if I remember rightly,
the oldest-established pack in the world.
The Belvoir and they are certainly the
two best-looking packs in the kingdom.
Racing-like hounds, with lovely shoulders,
all quality, and alike as peas. The
Oakley are a grand pack, and well
adapted to their heavy holding country.
They are big strong hounds, with big
limbs, and must be a standard higher
than the Belvoir, and not their equal in
colour, which is incomparable.

I have had several very enjoyable
runs with Mr. Green's stag-hounds near
Bury St. Edmunds, over the heavy
Suffolk bank country. Suffolk is a county

FORARD AWAY I57

SO much devoted to game that stag-
hunting is a good substitute for fox-
hunting, though the latter is carried on
under difficulties by the Suffolk and the
Newmarket and Thurlow fox-hounds.
Stag-hunting in Suffolk, with its heavy
clay, is indeed a contrast to stag-hunting
over Aylesbury Vale, where the Roths-
childs pack lead their many followers.
Stag-hunting is rare good fun, but more
artificial than fox-hunting, and I prefer
the latter. If one mentions stag-hunting
to an old-fashioned fox-hunter of the
calibre of Mr. Foljambe, for instance,
one's remarks are accepted with chilly
courtesy, the while a tiny cynical smile
plays in the corners of his mouth.

CHAPTER VI

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS ON
THE TURF

Only to think this Is the last chapter !
Oh, happy thought ! Never, when I
started, did I ever think I should struggle
through, but somehow, whilst writing of
riding and hunting matters, I seemed to
glide along glibly enough. Beyond doubt,
should this book ever see the inside of a
cover, It will be handed down to posterity
as the greatest jumble ever written. I am
fully aware things are dotted down In one
chapter which belong to another, and so
on, but any attempt at revision or classi-
fication is ten times more Irksome, I

158

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS I 59

find, than coming from pillar to post with
one run a la Tod Sloan ; and as this
young gentleman is creating quite a
furore throughout this country from one
end to the other just now, and creating
a greater stir in sporting circles than any
jockey has done since Archers day, it
may be as well just to criticize him to
start with.

I have closely studied Sloan's mode
of procedure, from mounting to dis-
mounting, and have come to the con-
clusion that he is undoubtedly a fine
horseman, as far as being on good terms
with his horse and his hands are con-
cerned. In the first place, he is averse
to tight-girthing when first the saddle
is put on, and as this often takes place
some twenty minutes before it is necessary
to get up, there's reason in it. He
usually gives his horse a familiar pat

l6o THE MERRY GEE-GEE

when mounted ; and, when cantering down
to the post, sits as still as a mouse, and
does not maul his head about, as one
so often sees done. I am prepared to
admit there is ground for the contention
that there is less resistance to the wind-
pressure when sitting in his crouching
attitude than straight up, but I do not
attribute this or the concentration of
weight on the horse's withers to his re-
markable success, so much as his judgment
of pace, his quick beginning, and letting
them come along. Whilst I very much
doubt his control over wayward horses
is so great, sitting where he does, as
where our jockeys sit, I am also dubious
as to its efficacy when coming downhill.
We should see this tested more fully
on courses like Epsom and Brighton, and,
so far, I am not aware that Sloan has
performed on any but flat or uphill courses

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS l6l

like Sandown, In which latter case I
should deem it an advantage having
weight forward, but not so round Tatten-
ham Corner. It will be remembered that,
in riding Asterie second in the Cesare-
witch the other day, the mare, after going
well at the bushes, seemed to falter
coming down the slight gradient known
as Bushes Hill, but strode away again
with greater freedom up from the Abing-
don Mile bottom. Weight forward is
sound argument going uphill, but may
it not hamper a horse and upset his
balance going down one ? That being for
ever held back, having to come round
beaten horses, and getting shut in, are
some of the penalties these always-waiting,
flash-finishing crack jockeys have to pay is
quite in the order of things, and a policy
which merits the reward it often meets.
I remember Sims, the darkey jockey,

M

1 62 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

who IS Sloan's principal rival in America,
coming over three or four years ago.
He rode, like Sloan, right on the withers,
and came all the way. I think the first
race he won was on Eau Gallie in the
Crawford Plate at the Newmarket Craven
Meeting. I had a horse running, and
was on the trainer's stand in the Birdcage
to watch the race. Sims was off quick,
and soon held a long lead, seeming to
be niggling slightly at his horse all the
way. All round they kept saying, " He'll
come back to them;" but not he — they
held him too cheaply, and he won com-
fortably at the finish.

I am aware a jockey can't come without
his horse, but when they won't come with
it when they can, just to gain public
applause for winning a short head with
a well-timed finish, as the papers say,
then just get beaten, they deserve it ; but

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 63

what about the owner and trainer and
the unfortunate backer ? If you study
and take note of the report in which such
a jockey as I have Indicated (who never
will come along without most emphatic
orders, and not always then) finishes in
the first two, you will find **just failed
to get up, and was beaten a head" is
more often recorded than ''won by a
head on the post."

I believe it to be a common fallacy
amongst trainers and jockeys that because
a horse is top weight in a handicap he
should necessarily be held back and waited
with, as is generally done. The said
horse has displayed merit, and shown some
previous form to place him in the position
of top weight amongst his rivals, and by
keeping him back I contend that you deny
him the opportunity to bring his merit
into play until the last final dash, to

164 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

say nothing of the mauHng he gets In the
effort to control him.

Archer is my ** best jockey." No man
ever came round Tattenham Corner with
greater resolution than he. George Ford-
ham was probably his equal on straight
courses ; and that neatest of jockeys, Tom
Cannon, was a champion at coaxing a
green two-year-old ; but Archer must be
my "all round" man. He invariably got
off, and was a perfect judge of pace,
finished with undeniable determination and
ability, and won at the post where stands
the umpire whose decision settles the
fortune of so many thousands.

I was well placed for an unofficial judge
when Melton and Paradox finished for
the Derby. Archer, who rode Melton,
was fifteen inches behind two lengths from
the post. By what seemed almost a
superhuman effort, he was fifteen inches

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 65

in front passing the post, whilst the
next stride placed Paradox again in the
van. I didn't measure the inches, but
this imaginary illustration may serve to
convey my meaning.

Jimmy Snowden was another brilliant
horseman when sober, and not so bad
when he wasn t, and I was an ardent
admirer of his riding.

I remember a match between Archer
on Knight of Burghly and Snowden on
Lock Leven at Manchester. It was
quite a sporting affair, and after both
jockeys riding for all they were worth,
one won by a head, but for the life of me
I can't remember which just now, and
as I've never made a reference of any
sort since I started, I'm not going to
begin now. It's too much worry, and
what little hair there is left on my cranium
is fast going grey.

1 66 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

I spoke to Archer on Newmarket
heath during exercise hours the morning
of Sailor Prince's Cambridgeshire (that
was about a fortnight before his death),
and, upon my word, he had wasted to
such an extent and got so thin you could
as near as possible count his ribs through
his covert coat. Archer had laid himself
out with extra determination to win the
Cambs. on St. Mirin that day, but the
coup was not destined to be realized,
for though the "all scarlet " was
prominent at the red post — that well-
known landmark on the then Cambs.
course, now known as the Old Cambs.
course — after a desperate struggle, in
which Archer (in a weak state, and ham-
pered by a broken stirrup-leather, hardly
showed, it was thought, his accustomed
brilliancy) succumbed by a head to Sailor
Prince, ridden by '' Tiny " White.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 67

Archer hunted a good deal in Leicester-
shire, and I have it on the undeniable
authority of Tom Firr that he was a
nailing good man to hounds ; so is his
brother, C. Archer, as I can vouch by
personal observation.

What on earth becomes of all the
light-weight jockeys who take the sport-
ing world by storm for a season or so,
and afterwards vanish into oblivion ?
You can see scores of their names if you
look through some old calendars, whom
you remember as having created a small
furore at some particular time, and you
had forgotten such ever existed till your
memory is suddenly refreshed. I suppose
a lot of them go to the bad ; the tempta-
tion held out to these youngsters and the
glamour of their position ruin them.

A few years ago the Jockey Club raised
the scale of weights from a minimum of

l68 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

5 St. 7 lbs. to 6 St., and I should like to
see it raised higher still, as common sense
tells us a 6-st. boy can have very little
control over a strong wilful horse ; then,
of what use is a breed of horses who
can only carry 6 st. or so respectably ?
If racing is to improve the breed of
horses, as some assert, let us, by all means,
have a higher scale of weight. In steeple-
chasing, where they have further to go,
generally in deep ground and fences to
jump, the minimum weight is lo St., and
7 lbs. less in the Grand National. A three-
year-old goes two miles over hurdles up
to his fetlocks in mud with lo St., but
the four-year-old bottom weight in the
Summer Handicap must only carry 6 st.
Besides, it spoils the temper of horses
being ridden by weak boys. They find
out their own power over science and
the higher animal, man, and once they

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 69

do that they take some curing of evil
ways.

To further illustrate the fallacy of
our present system, two-year-olds in their
own races in March, when they are mere
babies, carry 8 st. 12 lbs., whilst their older
and more matured stable companions are
racing with nearly 3 st. less. I should
like to see flat-race weights raised 2 st.
A voice of horror will soon be raised at
this, and will say, " Break them all down ; ''
and a good job if about a third of the
useless weeds were broken down, say
I. The strongest and best will survive.

What about Cloister, Frigate, the Lamb,
the Colonel, Why Not, and hosts of
others which stood the test nobly and
gallantly for years ? These are the sort
to do the country good. One hears
and reads of owners of classic three-year-
olds being called awful names if they

170 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

ask their glass-case gees to run about
five times in a season. " Over-worked/'
''Pitcher taken to the well once too
often," "Temper ruined," and so on; but
the poor old Epsom-trained selling-steeple-
chase plater has to face the music as
many times in a fortnight gamely, and
get beans, too, for a whole furlong in a
" well-timed " finish.

What a lot of the Newmarket trainers
have been cross-country riders of note !
— Jewitt, Marsh, J. Cannon, Ryan, and
C. Archer, for example. I am not sure
that Ryan carried silk, but I have seen
him go tremendously well with the New-
market drag and the neighbouring fox
and stag hounds.

I knew Mr. Ryan's son, young Jimmy,
very well, and it was indeed sad that he
should have been *' called " so early in
life, and with a brilliant career in front

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 17I

of him. He won several local chases on
his own horse the season before he died.
Heigho ! I'm wandering off to hunting
tales again, I see, so must pull up ; and
that reminds me that I have stuck words
on the front page of this *' blessed book"
as to the way to find winners. Perhaps
if I gave the most conscientious and at
the same time concise advice possible, it
would be a repetition of the words of
poor Jimmy Snowden before mentioned.
He and Drislane and old Tom Green,
the trainers, and two or three more of
us, were breakfasting off one of those
good solid hot breakfasts for which
Yorkshire is famous at the comfortable
hostelry at Thirsk, on the second day of
the meeting, and a cadaverous-looking
man came to the coffee-room and wanted
to speak to Mr. Snowden. Jimmy went
no more than halfway out of the door,

172 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

SO we could hear what passed ; and the
stranger, after apologizing for troubling,
etc., wanted to know If Jimmy could
oblige him with a winner or two, as he
had lost nearly all his money, principally
through backing Jim's mounts, and he'd
a wife and family, and lost his situation,
and so on — the old, old story. Yes, Jim
thought he could give him a good tip ;
but had he any money left ? Yes, about
a couple of sovs. in his pocket. Then
said Jimmy, " You darned well keep it
there."

After very careful study and consider-
ation, I have come to the conclusion
that about five per cent, of the stony
brigade, consisting of those who have
lost their money and come down in the
world, are the victims of bad luck, or
are idle and muddlers, and the other
ninety-five per cent, can trace the reason

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS I 73

of their downfall to one or perhaps more
of these three causes, viz. drink, gam-
bling, and excessive gallantry.

Being, as I am, a very-much-married
man, with quite a quiverful of noisy
boys and girls, and being, moreover, of
a retiring and somewhat bashful disposi-
tion, I am speaking on this last cause of
ruin devoid of any personal experience
whatever ; but, like a war-horse who sniffs
the battle from afar, I have heard of
hosts of poor men who have been in-
veigled and half ruined, and had their
peace of mind utterly confused, by
coquettish, plotting little bundles of fluff,
feathers, silken hose, bewitching smiles,
and canary-coloured hair. So, in obedi-
ence to candour and truth, I feel impelled
to put this all down, and I think that
*' excessive gallantry " just nicely expresses
the weakness of such frail creatures as

1/4 'JTHE MERRY GEE-GEE

fall victims to feminine charms and
snares.

Over-drinking, undoubtedly, does for a
goodly number, but, without wishing to
make a saint of myself, there is not
very much to confess here. I may have
had to scramble to bed odd times by
aid of the balustrade and the boots; I
may have risen in the morning with a
"head," and breakfasted off half a piece
of dry toast ; but on the whole much
harm hasn't followed, and certainly I
have no occasion to put this down as one
of my besetting sins.

Gambling has done the trick for me,
though, and if I, in the certain know-
ledge that anything I may record will
not waver one solitary backer from the
error of his ways, still endeavour to
point out the most common-sense way
in which it should be done, I will not

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 75

scruple to lay it down as a golden maxim
that the pleasure of winning is more
than counterbalanced by the misery of
losing. Yes, backers of horses play a
losing game, because the odds are against
them, though it may be, and often is,
only slightly. They pursue a fascinating
and engrossing phantom at the expense
of their business, and are mistrusted by
the other half of the community in general
and their bankers in particular.

As the moth with blind persistency
again and again dips its already scorched
wings in the flickering candle-flame, so
do we return to the noble pursuit of
finding *em. I can hardly call to mind
a solitary example of a man who has
once developed this taste ever really
relinquishing it. You meet a man in
the street and say, *' Doing anything to-
day, old man ? " *' No, I've chucked it

176 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

for a bit/* ** Giving it a rest," " Had a
good win over the National, and show-
ing 'em the art of gambling ; " or, " No,
that game's no good to me. I should
soon have had to put the shutters up."
Wait a while. You'll meet any of these
before long either going panting with a
sweet smiling face to a meeting, or they'll
come and buttonhole you to one side,
and tell you in a mysterious whisper
they know the biggest cert, they ever
knew in all their lives for the Hunt Cup
at Ascot. If it runs in a small race at
Epsom, don't back it, and don't get
stalled off if it runs badly. It's going
for the Hunt Cup, and you must get on
as soon as ever the betting opens.

If one hasn't been racing for some
considerable time — a few months or a
season, maybe — it's quite striking to notice
all the old familiar faces and a few new

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 77

ones. Men one knew years ago when
we first started the game, some stouter
and more prosperous-looking, others
diseased and ragged. The man you re-
member as having seen take looo to
80 four times Buchanan for the Lincoln
Handicap making a very silver book,
perhaps, on the outskirts of the silver
ring. The man you saw welshing and
half bashed to death, as you thought,
fifteen years ago at Stockbridge is now
betting in Tattersall's ring in thousands
over the rails of the members' enclosure,
with seven diamond rings on his fingers,
and young Koh-i-noors for his shirt-
studs. You see a man card-selling
whom you knew some years ago as
having four horses in training at Lam-
bourne, and you see another who started
life turning '* cart-wheels " or standing
on his head in the street for coppers,

N

178 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

then- bookmaker's runner, and now owning
six or seven horses in one of the crack
stables at Newmarket.

There they all are, the racing army ; the
seasons may come and the seasons may
go, favourites get beat and outsiders roll
home, they keep on punting bravely still.

I hope none who may read this book
will jump to the conclusion that book-
making is a simple, broad, and easy road
to fortune. You can bet unlucky at
that game very easily, and go down at
it. Then, again, those bookmakers who
are at heart backers in disguise, and
keep something for the book (that is,
not lay it), or back once or twice a day,
are not playing their own game properly,
and are pretty certain to "come unstuck."

A bookmaker should be a born
mathematician, and bet to figures as near
as possible, but which is not always

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 79

practicable, whether you are at the post
or betting starting-price away from it. If
a man is betting at the post, and there
are, for instance, three runners, and they
take six to four each of two, the other
works out at four to one, but the book-
maker would not be laying more than
three to one, which leaves a certain profit,
though small. In fields of sixteen runners
or so, a bookmaker can often bet or
make a round book on about ten or
twelve horses, and have the others run-
ning for him clear if he has a good
connection ; and should one of those he
has not laid at all roll home, he has a
good haul, and can stand a few favourites
winning later on.

Bet as you may, however, the book
will go wrong when a long sequence of
favourites get home. Bookmakers, as a
class, are most good-hearted, generous

l8o THE MERRY GEE-GEE

fellows, and always ready to subscribe
to any genuine misfortune that may
overtake jockeys, officials, or, in fact, any
one connected with the turf. There are
two or three, unfortunately, that I'm
indebted to, and two or three (also
unfortunately) that are indebted to me.
The worst treatment IVe had is having
to pay for a bottle now and then. You
meet them, and calling up a pal or two
with the remark that they've " sprung
a bogie," you proceed to the refreshment-
bar. I got touched for ^400 over one
race by an unlucky layer over the
Cesarewitch a few seasons ago, but up
to now he's not even treated me. I wish
times would come good for everybody,
then I suppose we should all settle,
except the rankest of outsiders. I'm
afraid that will hardly happen, though,
this side the Millennium.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS l8l

Who hasn't been welshed, or, having
been, will own to it ? Their education
is as incomplete as those who have not
endeavoured to " find the lady '* with the
three-card men.

I remember I got welshed the very first
time I went punting in the small ring,
off a very highly respectable and flourish-
ing party doing business as the Pickwick
Firm. They were dressed in true
Pickwickian costume, and shortly after
I met the principal in plain clothes, and,
saluting me with a most cordial shake
of the hand, expressed his regret that
I, of all men, had ''tumbled into the
net." He stood drinks and cigars, and
I am to have my pieces another time ! ! !

The night I got done for ;^40o at
Newmarket off that bookmaker (who
was, of course, nothing so common as
a welsher, but all the same couldn't pay)

1 82 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

I was Standing on the platform at
Newmarket Station, and as a train came
slowing up, a man jumped off the plat-
form and put his head on the far metal.
We had no time to do anything but
shudder, and, of course, it was expected
he would have to be picked up in
basketfuls. However, the protecting-
rod in front of the engine-wheel had
pushed his head to one side, so he was
only scalped, and lived to punt another
day. He was in the infirmary for many
weeks, and then they tried the poor
beggar for attempting suicide. I think
they let him off, though, pretty easily.
Moral: when you want to indulge in
these playful jokes, put your neck, not
your head, on the metals, or you may
only get scalped.

During the recent discussion in the
Daily Telegraph re the purification of the

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 83

turf, a lot of rot was written by people
who know nothing about it, to the effect
that those who won't bet with good
bookmakers when there are plenty
deserve to lose. How the dickens is
a casual attendant at race meetings to
distinguish the wheat from the chaff? A
punter stands carefully eyeing over a
couple of wrong uns, when, sure enough,
two ** sporting sort of gentlemen" come
up at different moments and back some-
thing with them to win a pony or so
on the Nod. That gives him the
necessary confidence, for surely if they
are good for that sum they are good for
his couple of sovereigns, and into the net
he falls.

I think more protection should be given
to those who pay their 2^. td, or 5^. for
entry to the smaller rings at suburban
meetings, by having the enclosures kept

184 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

clearer of wrong uns. It is not because
gatekeepers don't know them ; it is because
managers and clerks of courses, in their
anxiety to secure gates resulting in divi-
dends, wink the other eye, and so the
game goes on.

Bookmaking is not quite the golden
game the uninitiated set it down to be,
and few bookmakers amass anything like
the fortune ascribed to them, nor do such
fortunes bear favourable comparison with
those amassed by men in commercial and
other walks of life. Of course, the book-
maker lives out of the backer, as does
also indirectly the whole racing institution
of the country and a good portion of
railway profits and the sporting press.

Owners of horses run for very little
more money than is subscribed by their
own entry and other fees in races
cleverly constructed by wily clerks of

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 85

courses, who get a premium on their own
handiwork, and are generally big share-
holders in the club meetings as well.
You can trace it nearly all directly or
indirectly to the merry punter, and of
these how many make fortunes, or die
better off than when they were born ? Not
many. A racing man, who knows them
all pretty well, can quickly tick them off
with his fingers. But the impoverished
ones, are they not thick as Vallombrosian
leaves throughout the length and breadth
of the land ? Some flourish like a green
bay tree one day, and are stony the next.
YouVe had a good day, you've won ;^5oo
to-day, and ;£soo yesterday, and you know
a real good thing for to-morrow, and
you ve got a two-year-old in training that
you ran only half fit in April, when it
ran last ; it's come on by leaps and bounds,
and you'll get it in a nursery in September,

1 86 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

bottom weight, and it will be the biggest
cert, in all Christendom ; and won't you
give the bookmakers beans over that
cove? Everything is going as merry as
the marriage bell, so you dine your friends
sumptuously on the very best; do, the
Empire, and sup at the Savoy, Continental,
or friendly Jimmy's — nice life this, when
you know how to play the game — till a
sequence of reverses set in such as have
never been heard of before. One cert,
ran a deadheat, and got beat in the run
off; another got shut in at the critical
moment ; one twisted a plate when it had
the race in hand ; a swinging hurdle caught
another that couldn't have lost ; and the
readied two-year-old broke down. Who
could stand all this ? You take the knock,
and instead of betting on the Nod over
the rails, you are dashing it down in dollars
on the course. I've saved a couple of

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 8/

bobs with Benson, the Jubilee Plunger,
within a short time of his betting in tens
of thousands. No suppers at St. James's
then, you know — ^just a bun and a cup of
cocoa at a penny, and walk up and down
the streets to kill time and misery till bed-
time.

Some backers of a very even tem-
perament plod on, just living at it for
years ; but if you want to live at backing
horses you must take the money for your
guide, and back sometimes three or four
in a race to make your money pretty level.
I've run guide-books through without end,
and studied all systems. There are lots more
favourites win than anything else. The
fact that when favourites win bookmakers
lose speaks for itself. If there is a hot
favourite, and the price is six to four on
the field before flag-fall, and four, five, or
six to one bar one, you should back the

1 88 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

favourite ; but if there are two favourites
at about equal prices, say five to two, or
three to one each, and sixes or sevens
bar one, back the two favourites, and so
on, but there is no set rule, and you cannot
work it on a system. I've known men with
every conceivable system under the sun,
and they all come to pieces sooner or later ;
the book wins. Then it is impossible, when
tested by experience, to play your money
by increased or curtailed sequences with
any chance of success. The sharps and
the boys who go racing all the year round
are most of them what are called good
gamblers — that is, they have pluck or
recklessness enough to leave their winnings
down (or play them up if you like), and
by so doing they occasionally run a few
sovereigns into a few hundreds, then
they have a good time until they play
it down again, and are stony and

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 89

dependent on their pals for a time.
It Is this possibility that leads the
backer on ; it is his bright beacon on the
golden shore ; but reefers and quicksands
intervene sometimes.

Funny lot the racing army are ! There's
the lumberer— a young fellow dressed
quietly and as a gentleman, barring some
trifling detail always apparent. He
selects his greenhorn, and, biding his
time, asks for a light, or. Your pencil a
moment. Thanks. Good race ; and did
you back It ? No ; did he ? Yes ; at
least, his friend did, who is Inside, and
knows Watts, or Cannon, or Loates, and
does part of their commissions. Indeed ?
and what might they be going to back
for the next race ? Ah, he can't tell yet ;
his friend, even, won't know till the
jockeys have arranged it at the last
moment, and perhaps then may not be

IQO THE MERRY GEE-GEE

able to bet at all for a couple of races or
so lower down the card. Put a tenner
on for you ? Well, perhaps George
might ; I'll ask him if you like. They
hunt in twos and threes, and George
will certainly appear at the right moment.
George obliges. Tenner goes down, but
there's more to follow ; and I've known
of hundreds to go in one hand. I knew
a case of a clerk in the North who fell a
prey till he parted with all he could get
hold of, and afterwards drowned himself
in the reservoir ; but that's only a detail.

The young gentlemen under notice
generally work about the coaches at
swell meetings, where game is pretty
plentiful as a rule. They are unobtrusive,
and won't hurt you ; take your money,
that's all — no vulgarity about them.

Christian friends, would you like to
play the lumbering trick just for once ? If

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS I9I

SO, I'll tell you what to do. Just lumber
all your friends on to reading the
** Merry Gee-Gee." They may never
forgive you, perhaps, for playing them
such a fiendish joke, but you will have
the satisfaction of knowing you have
aided in a good cause.

Of tipsters there is no possible doubt
but that Old Jack Dickenson is the un-
doubted champion. Not that I should
think it at all likely one tipster gives
any more winners than another ; in fact,
I should say that in a twelvemonth two
tipsters would give precisely the same
number of winners, or very little differ-
ence, just as two people playing at cards
together for a week would leave off quits
if they played an equally good game.
But everybody knows old Jack ; he's
always there at exercise in a morning
on the course, whilst many are not out

192 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

of bed, and he knows everybody, and is
so civil and courteous, and has played
the game so unremittingly for years and
years. Jack's a dead gambler, or I feel
sure he would have been a millionaire ;
the money he has had off the British
public is incredible. He generally owns
a few platers when he is flush. The
midday editions have knocked the tipsters
badly.

The Rose berry Despatch was once a
flourishing scrip, especially after giving
Goldseeker a long-shot City and Suburban
winner. I know Mr. Glover, the pro-
prietor, very well, and I saw him looking
hale and hearty the other day. He won
a thousand-pound nursery at Derby with
a two-year-old he called after his paper.
Then Mr. Hartley, another tipster, owned
several platers a year or so ago.

The whisperer is a bird of different

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS IQ^

plumage. He has a goodly number of
private country clients on his book, to
whom he sends ''paddock wires;" and if
two horses seem to monopolize a race
pretty well between them, he, of course,
sends one as a cert, to half his clients, the
other half having the other gee as a snip,
so he has two strings to his bow, and
can't very well crab them all one day:
moreover, fresh mugs keep being born
as old ones die off. He has his regular
saddling paddock punters, too, with
whom he can be seen holding serious
converse in corners and behind shrubs.
What a gullish herd stay - at - home
backers are ! They don't bet till they
get something "sent" from such as
these or a discharged stable boy. Do
owners keep horses in training at enor-
mous expense to divulge their intentions
in these channels ? But your backer

o

194 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

must have mystery, or he's not ''in the
know."

My child, my dear, trustful, innocent
child, there's not half, nor a tenth part the
mystery in it all you imagine, and when
there is you won't know until after, and
most likely not then. You make no
allowance for in and out running. You
can't seem to understand that horses are
not like machines, so many pounds of
steam and a given speed. You know
nothing of slips, bad starts, suppressed
coughs, bumpings, some other horse come
on and another gone off. It is unsavoury
to you to think that in the Stewards' Cup
of twenty runners everybody connected
with quite ten of them are sanguine of
success, that is not mysterious enough for
you, but it is nevertheless a fact. When
the horse you've backed is beat you give
expression to a doubt you had entertained

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 95

that he was not on the job this time, but
they're not going to kid you ; you mean to
wait and back him next time he runs ; he
must be watched. There is, as a matter
of fact, very much less of the " down the
course," "stiff un," and ''Johnny Arm-
strong " jockey business than the outside
pubHc imagine.

There is plenty in the natural constitu-
tion of a horse and the transition from
greenness and want of condition to per-
fection to account for reversal of form
and confound handicappers and the
public, without attempting to bluff them
by vulgar means. Your two-year-old Is
coming on daily, but not more than half
fit yet ; but you want his eyes opening in
public and using to the rustle of silk, and
as he's engaged in the Produce Stakes and
you will have the forfeit to pay anyhow,
you run him and say to your jockey,

igS THE MERRY GEE-GEE

" Tm not backing him to-day, as he Is
hardly to my liking, but I am anxious to
win the Prince of Wales' Nursery next
month. He's bound to win that if he runs
badly to-day, and gets in at a decent
weight, so don't knock him about, it's a
pity in his condition, and then you can ride
him again in the Prince of Wales' Nursery,
when we mean to have a real gamble."

To further illustrate. Your horse lacks
the dash for a five-furlong race, but is
useful at a mile, and more than useful at
a mile and a half, so you persistently
run him out of his course in five-furlong
events in which he makes no show, till
eventually you enter him in a mile-and-
a-half race, getting bottom weight, and
you have a dash, as you've got a stone
in hand ; but, woe betide you ! there's
another gee trained in the North, with
two stone up his sleeve, been playing the

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 97

same game, and you get beaten in a
canter by four lengths.

So the noble game is played ; but what
matter, when you are in the know of a real
cop for the Cambridgeshire, which is to
be the grand retriever for all your losses
of the year, and you mean to back it
*' till the cows come home " ? It over-
powers its light-weight boy, and runs
three times to the bushes in false starts,
but performs respectably in the race, con-
sidering what it had taken out of itself
before the race, so it must be backed
again in a welter race with a man up,
and so on.

Fve just remembered the case of a
man who made an error worth recount-
ing. It was the Alexandra Park meeting,
June, 1893, and I was at home, and
walking up street in the afternoon, I met
my friend, and said, ''Good afternoon.

1 98 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

George. Done anything ? " '* Yes,
tenner on that rotten Garland, and just
got result wire ; he's beat. He's in the
last race too, and they may run him
again, so I'm going to wire and cry off
that. I can't afford to lose ;^20 over that
crock to-day; I've been having a bad
time." In the last race there were three
runners, with a long odds-on chance
favourite ; but Garland started at 100 to 8,
and won easily, so that second wire lost
my friend ;^i25, and George took a
three days' booze on the strength of it.
Garland belonged to Mr. Savage, a
Lewes sportsman, who previously owned
Adanapaar, a very well-bred and useful
sort of horse, on whom, however, I
dropped ^300 one day, and his owner
four sovereigns.

I won my first bet, I remember so
well, when I was at school at Lincoln.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 1 99

I got expelled from two boarding-schools
out of three — at least, I got expelled from
one, and the mater was politely requested
to remove me from another, which was
much the same thing. By some manoeu-
vring I managed to get off to the hunt
steeplechase meeting just outside the city,
and I had 55. to 45'. Barbarian, a horse
belonging to Mr. Sam Welfitt of Tath-
well, and ridden by Mr. Rippon Brockton,
otherwise known as old Rip Brockton,
even in those days, thirty years ago.
He was judging at a horse show the
other day where I was showing, and
looks very little older now than he did
then. Up to the time he gave up riding,
there w^as no more popular gentleman
rider in Nottinghamshire and Lincoln-
shire of a certainty than Mr. Brockton.
I did my winnings in and a bit more to
it before I left the course, but, nothing

200 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

daunted, I've been playing the great
game off and on ever since.

After I left school, our grocer was
my bookmaker. Sporting grocers ' are
about as rare as non-sporting butchers,
and as for a non-sporting barber, he is
unworthy his high calling. • Do not
mighty turf secrets emanate from our
friend the sporting barber ? Does he not
shave a young fellow that courts the cook
at the same house where the housemaid
lives that Dawsons head travelling-lad
is going to marry ? or doesn't Bill Cash,
the bookmaker, have his hair cut at our
friend the tonsorial artist's ? Anyhow,
our grocer was my bookmaker till I got
older and fixed, and knew more, and
wanted to dash more down and pick
more up ; so I played the game more
gallantly, and as time went on got to
bet in ponies, and fifties, and hundreds

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 20I

with varying success. Of course, I was
only in quite a middle-class position of
life, so winning or losing two or three
thousand a year was playing it fairly for
me, though very small potatoes to those
who bet on the higher scale.

The man who bets in monkeys (;/^5oo)
on a race looks with a mild pity on the
man who bets in ponies (^25), who also,
in his turn, has profound contempt for a
man who dabbles in ones and twos. I
got a run of luck sometimes — got some
long-priced ones home now and then.
I had a good autumn when Ossian won
the Leger, capturing ^700 over him,
followed by;^ii5o over Bendigo for the
Cambs., and ;^i300 Boswell the Liverpool
Autumn Cup. I backed this gee at the
Lincoln meeting at tens; then he was
knocked out, and I had forty to one to
a few sovereigns, and went and backed

202 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

him at the post at, I think, about three to
one.

Soon after this I had a big reverse in
business, so I went for it back on the turf
keener than ever. I had a real bad day
in store shortly after this period. I got
in the know of the deadest snip that
ever was known in a hunters' flat race at
Sandown Park. This mare was said to
have so much in hand that if she tumbled
down she'd have time to get up again and
win. I backed It at all sorts of prices
down to six to four. Had ;^I200 on,
and stood to win about ;^3000 over the
race. There were eleven runners, and
the dead snip finished third. I had every
proof afterwards that, as a punishment for
taking all the cream of the market, I was
put ** in the cart " over that job, and next
time out that mare won in a canter by six
lengths. I dropped ;^40o more over the

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 2O3

next two races, and then took ;^i6oo to
;^400 on a certain horse in a steeplechase.
Mr. George Lambton was on the favourite,
a six to four chance, and after it fell, the
far side against the railway gates, they
shouted ten to one on my gee. There
were only two at all in it, mine going strong
and well, and the other in distress, so
much so, in fact, that his heart misgave
him as they neared the last fence, and
he swerved right across into mine, and
down they both came a cropper; mean-
while one of the rank outsiders came up
from behind, and got the race. That
swerve cost me ;^2000, and as I walked
over Waterloo Bridge that night I should
have taken very little persuading to drown
my sorrows in old Father Thames. I
had only just entered the grinding mill
then, though, but haven't I just been
through it again and again since then!

204 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Yes, I climbed down steadily, still a patron
of the sport of kings, rubbing shoulders
with the scum of the earth, punting
bravely in shillings, and sometimes pounds,
as fortune wavered.

About this time I used to make a book
occasionally with a pal, and I remember
on one occasion we stood up In the shilling
ring at Manchester with a bank of ^20.
Favourites rolled home with a cruel per-
sistency the first two days, till we had to
face the music with two sovereigns on the
Saturday morning.

It was the day Raffaello won the Novem-
ber Handicap, and the course was under
water on the far side, and very heavy all
over. We laid them as level as we could,
and had to back any overlaid ones in with
a neighbour each race. They were big
fields, and outsiders (which we managed
to miss) got home to such a tune that by

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 205

giving all the money a chance each time
we had ^^57 in the satchell at the day's
end. We never had to pay over anything
to any extent all day.

Coming up from Warwick to Man-
chester on this occasion, I remember
having a close ride. We scrambled into
a third-class carriage of the special from
Warwick to Manchester, after racing at the
former place ; and, of course, we were five
a side — cash bookmakers and the usual
motley crew. Just as the train was moving
off, there came tumbling through the window
of the locked off-side door, five riders, or
samples of the boys, without tickets, so
we were pretty thick — fifteen of us, for an
hour and a half's ride. When we slowed
up for the ticket exam, place, we stowed
the two fattest under each seat, put the
thinnest on the hat-rack, and covered with
mackintoshes, etc., and the other two laid

205 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

behind us on the seats, carefully hidden.
Our journey was lively enough, as the
boys were full of anecdotes, and not at
all apprehensive as to what hotel they
were going to stop at on arriving at
Manchester.

About this time the enclosed coursing
meetings were all the rage, and I fre-
quented them a good deal, and have been
to Kempton, Plumpton, Four Oaks,
Haydock, and Gosforth Park, all of which
are now done away with. I have seen
five or six Waterloo Cups, and high times
we had at the Adelphi, at Liverpool,
when things were rosy. Fullerton was
a grand greyhound at all points, and no
mistake. I have been to most coursing
meetings in England and Scotland ; the
open coursing is far preferable to the
enclosed system in my opinion. Coursing
is a terrible gamble, almost worse than

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 207

racing, and public coursing after driven
hares is about as far removed from riding
after a brace of greyhounds on your own
farm, as the battue from shooting over a
brace of well-broken pointers, and walking
to your own game.

One day, in those times of rampant
impecuniosity, I had a stroke of luck.
I was engaged in the lofty pursuit of
driving a hansom and making a tiny
S.P. book amongst my pal cabbies,
and a gentleman hailed me one night
to take to a certain address two real
ladies, both of whom had been taking
a wee drop more than was good for
them. The gentleman rode in the cab
too, and what a job we had unloading
them ! They got their legs through the
spokes of the wheels, and rolled under
the horse, which, luckily, was very quiet,
as cab-horses sometimes are ; but eventually,

208 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

with the aid of a passing navvy, we
dragged them inside. The sportsman
gave me a sovereign, and told me to
put it on Tib for the Stewards* Cup,
which I did, and it won at twenty-five to
one. It was partly as hush-money, too,
I think, as the place was not very big,
and he was a town councillor, or something
of that sort. I kept my trust pretty
well, too, as I've never breathed a word
from that day to this, and even now
I have not divulged the name of the
town, have I ?

Often in those days, when I had
nothing to do, no money, and no means
of earning any, I used to have a day's
hunting on foot; and I have walked and
run miles and miles a day after the
hounds. If ever I'd captured a loose
horse, you bet I'd have had a good ride ;
but none such ever happened to cross

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 209

my path. From having dropped to
poverty, misery, and despair, I managed,
through bringing my auctioneering abilities
into play, to creep back into a moderately
decent position of ;^500 a year ; but, still
saturated with confidence in my know-
ledge of the Turf, and having, as I
thought, a nose for winners — which
however, often have a beastly habit of
running second only — I find myself some-
what (and a very big somewhat, too)
stranded once more on the pebbly beach,
and lowered to the utter degradation of
writing this jumble.

Having touched on jockeys and betting,
surely I ought to say something of the
gees themselves. Accordingly, I may as
well say, without further parley, that
Ormonde is my ''best horse." I saw
him run all his races, I think ; and
give me a horse good at all distances,

p

2IO THE MERRY GEE-GEE

and that was never beaten. Not only
that, but in dealing with Ormonde we
must remember he reigned in a season
rich in good horses, several of which
would have made a rare example of
most of our classic performers this
season.

The two most interesting races I have
seen were the Two Thousand Guineas
Ormonde won, and the Hardwicke Stakes
at Ascot, wherein he beat Minting and
Bendigo. Minting was considered by-
Matt Dawson an extraordinary horse, and
so he was, indeed, and when, after having
backed him for the Two Thousand Guineas,
I stood and saw the easy way in which
Ormonde strode away from him out
of the Abingdon Mile bottom, I said to
myself, ''What manner of horse is this
I see?" Saraband and St. Mirin were
behind the two, and he served the sturdy

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 2 1 I

and speedy little Bard the same way in
the Derby.

I remember a tremendous perform-
ance of his in one of the numerous
Newmarket biennials, in which he gave
stones to the very speedy Mephisto
over five furlongs, and left him standing
still.

Doubtless, at Ascot, when Minting made
a race of it with him, and with Bendigo
close up, his wind infirmity was begin-
ning to tell upon him. In Ormonde,
Archer, and John Porter one got rather
a useful trio — horse, jockey, and trainer ;
and verily they took some beating.

Without a doubt Bendigo and Victor
Wild have been the two most popular
handicap horses of modern times, and the
former is a striking example of a great
racehorse proving a great stud failure,
and I hope Victor Wild will do better.

212 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Bendigo would have won the Cambridge-
shire the year Gloriation was first, right
enough, if Johnny Osborne had come
sooner. I was standing on the top
ground just where his jockey asked
him the question, and he shot out
like a bullet, but it was too late. People
said unkind things of Osborne because
he trained the winner, but he's as
honest as the day — simply committed an
error of judgment, that's all. Bendigo
wanted the great little Tod up. I place
Bendigo as the greatest handicap horse
I have known, as, although Minting was
undeniable at medium distances, I question
his ability to have got the Cesarewitch
course as Bendigo did ; and I class the
latter's performance, when he ran second
to Humewood, conceding stones, as quite
one of the best on record, independent
of his winning record as a miler. If

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 213

I remember right, Bendlgo carried 9 st.
10 lbs., and was giving about a stone
to a horse like Carlton, a proved high-
class stayer, and several other good ones,
whom he beat any distance. Yes, un-
doubtedly this was a very great perform-
ance. Speaking of Carlton and of horses
running in all shapes, did anybody ever
see a horse look so little like the
veritable stayer he undoubtedly was ?
High, narrow, and split up behind in
a most marked degree. Still, handsome
is as handsome does, as the saying goes ;
and Carlton's performances speak for
themselves.

The fact of so many examples brought
to our notice, and doubly emphasized of
late, of unfashionably bred horses beating
their more fashionable rivals, should lend
encouragement to small owners to buy
low-priced yearlings, so long as they

214 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

Stick to size and good formation, indepen-
dent of their being bred to figures ; and
I strongly recommend this course to
large farmers or such as have plenty
of land accommodation, and grow their
own corn and forage on a cheap scale.
Break your own yearlings, and get them
ship-shape and about half fit. You will
soon see if there is anything worth
sending to train, and the others can
lay by for hunters and chasers later on
in life.

We have had many striking illustrations
of selling-platers showing marked improve-
ment under different management, notably
Victor Wild, and quite recently Chalereux
and Herminius. Change of stables and
different training and a man understanding
his business bring this about ; one horse
thrives only on a mild preparation, whilst
another glutton can't have too much work ;

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 215

and one great cause of bad doing Is' their
teeth.

I know a celebrated equine dentist
whose labours have produced wonderful
results through extracting diseased and
filing down sharp projecting teeth. I have
seen horses with their gums all boils and
sores through sharp teeth continually
rubbing against them, and have known
such horses develop irritability, and their
attendants unable to attribute the cause,
and have seen them, after a few minutes'
treatment by the man I refer to, rub their
noses on his arms, and almost lick his
hands In gratitude.

I remember buying a two -year- old
some years ago for a little money after
running last in a race. His gums had
a rancorous incision in which you could
have laid your finger, caused by his
teeth. In a few weeks after dentistry

2l6 THE MERRY GEE>GEE

he came on beyond recognition. It so
happened I had a very bad Ascot just
then, losing- £s^^> which was a good
lot for me at that particular time, so I
entered the colt in an overnight selling
at Alexandra Park on the Saturday, and
wired for him to be sent on. I had a
fair splash on him, backing him more
particularly for a place. I told my jockey
he was an idle horse, wanting a lot of
riding, and told him to keep plugging it
into him all the way. Passing the post
a sheet would have covered the first four,
and mine, coming as one dropped from
the clouds, got beat out of place by no
more than the length of your hand. He
was catching them every stride, and would
have won outright in two or three more
lengths. My jockey had not started riding
him soon enough. I wish I had Tod
Sloan up ; he'd have won, right enough.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 217

He won next time out easily, and the next
also, and I did very well, getting over
;^400 out of him.

Another matter which tends to upset
form is the fact that plenty of horses who
can act on the hard ground are helpless
in the mud, and vice versa ; and whilst some
can act on give-and-take courses like Epsom
and Brighton, others can't get downhill,
owing to faulty shoulder placement.
Leicester is a funny course — switchback-
railway sort of business, and quite a pitfall
for backers. If a horse performs well
there once, he will generally do the same
again. Rustlcus, who captured two very
rich handicaps there, but could not win
elsewhere for love or money, was a
striking illustration of this.

I give steeplechasing a decided pre-
ference over flat-racing from a sporting
point of view, though it is more risky

2l8 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

gambling, and I question if I have ever
seen one to beat Cloister at the game;
but there is so much difference between
a chaser who can just get two miles
brilliantly and one who can with safety
negotiate and stay at full speed the Grand
National course, that comparisons (without
being odious) are difficult to make and
of small account. Although Cloister by
no means filled the eye as the stayer and
weight-carrier he was, being not over-well
ribbed up, and with a moderate back and
rather split up, a more brilliant perform-
ance could not be imagined than the way in
which he cut up his Liverpool field, carry-
ing the biggest weight on record, making
the whole of the running, and winning by
forty lengths. That was a capital illustra-
tion of what I advocated further back as
to letting top weights stride along, thus
giving them an opportunity to bring their

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 2I9

merits into play. Cloister skimmed his
fences like a swallow, and you hardly saw
him jump at all — he seemed to gallop over
them, as perfect chasers should.

Slow horses often win chases through
their perfect fencing, but not as often as of
yore. They are mostly speedy recruits
from the flat ; and a very fast hunter, if
not quite thoroughbred and well schooled,
has no earthly chance against selling
steeplechasers, who, besides having some
pace about them, are so used to jumping
at full speed that they lose no time at their
fences. I do not take exception to the
guard-rail fence to the extent many do,
as I have trained plenty who will go and
jump it right enough the very first time
they are asked. When you start an
ordinary hunter chasing, it Is the increased
pace at which he is asked to jump that
confuses him. Stallions intended for being

2 20 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

transferred from the flat to steeplechaslng
are far better added to the list, and so
would be a good many flat-racers I know
of. Joe Cannon is one trainer I can
mention as a disciple of this doctrine.
Nearly all the sons and grandsons of
Hermit show a natural adaptability to
jump and sire jumpers of note. Natural
jumpers are generally placid-tempered
horses, and minus the excitability of the
St. Simons, for instance.

Nothing can possibly be more irritat-
ing to young thoroughbreds than our
system of starting ; and, with great defer-
ence to the ability of Mr. Arthur Coventry,
I, for one, am a great believer in the
starting-gate, and hope it will be uni-
versal here shortly. Surely the new
rules of the Jockey Club promoting long-
distance racing must have a beneficial
effect In fostering chasers by encouraging

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKIxVG WINNERS 221

a Stouter breed, and at the same
time a breed of more service to the
country. A wretched-looking, weedy
two-year-old well forward may be a
source of remuneration for early two-
year-old racing, but they are no good
for Grand National horses or anything
else later in life.

It is puzzling to account for the fact
that speedy five-furlong horses who could
not stay at all on the flat often prove
brilliant hurdle-racers, and can with
ease stay two miles at that game,
whilst horses that could have given
them stones at two miles on the flat
can't hold a candle to them over hurdles.
I attribute the reason to smart jumping
and quickness in getting on their legs
again. Bonnie Lassie was the quickest
mare I ever saw over hurdles, and could
not get more than five furlongs on the

222 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

flat. Without glasses you could not
detect her jump at all a short distance
off; her effort was so even and slight as
to be imperceptible.

There's real and genuine pleasure in
the local hunt-race meetings all over the
country, where one knows each horse
and each rider, and the ladies want all
the winners finding and their fortunes
telling ; luncheons, minstrelsy, the popping
of champagne-corks, and all the parapher-
nalia. I should rather like to see some
new rule passed enabling genuine hunters
to have a chance in hunters' flat races,
as used to prevail, but which under the
present system are entirely devoted to race-
horses, and in which a Quorn or Belvoir
hunter would have no chance. There's
a private sweepstake at Croxton Park
every year of this nature which is most
popular, and always commands no end

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 223

of runners. Croxton Park meeting must
be one of the oldest in the country, and
very popular with all the country side —
everybody goes for miles round ; and that
reminds me what tricks people have to
get off for a day's racing who do not
wish their sedate neighbours to know
they follow such an evil pursuit.

I have in my mind's eye a very highly
respectable solicitor, quite a model of
propriety, etc., but he does love finding
'em, and I often go and discuss with him
the chances of prominent candidates for
future events. When this hardened old
sinner is off out for a day s racing, he
carries a legal-looking black bag with
him, and a bundle of blue papers tied
with pink tape. These he takes with
him to the first junction on the line, and
there they are carefully deposited in the
parcels-office, to be brought out again for

2 24 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

a cloak to the inquisitive on his return
from having been '* up to town to consult
his London agent J' Mighty fond of
poker he is ; nearly all racing men are
fond of cards and billiards.

I can't say these two mediums have
cost me anything. IVe certainly played
cards when we've won or lost ;^400 or
;/^500 a sitting, but I don't think they
owe me anything. If a man has the
bump of speculation, it's very hard to
go against it. I'm quite a believer in
phrenology. It requires a lot of deter-
mination to go against your bumps ;
and fighting against idleness, want of
punctuality, over-extravagance, etc., must
be a greater virtue in the man who has
those undesirable bumps, and consequently
inclinations, than it is in the man who
has the reverse bumps and the reverse
inclinations.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 225

The Salvation Army have no occasion
to wear a uniform — they carry it all in
their faces, with few exceptions; your
anarchist has it in his phiz ; and for further
evidence take a walk round the Chamber
of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's.

It's rather funny how persistent backers
of horses have their lucky and unlucky
meetings, and bet a little extra or a little
careful as the case may be ; they are a
very superstitious class, too, as a rule.
York, Liverpool, and the old Croydon
meetings were my lucky ones, and Ascot
— oh, dreadful Ascot ! — my unlucky one.

I can't imagine the reason, but I always
seemed in for some fun and enjoyment
the minute I set foot in York. It's
always sure to develop sooner or later
from some unforeseen source. I remem-
ber one great night years ago. We had
had a real good time, backed all the

Q

226 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

winners, and so on, and dined wisely and
well at the Station Hotel, where we
stayed, spending the evening in the
usual convivial way — big cigars and the
finest brands of wine or liquor, as the case
might be. We strolled outside just
before midnight to have a cooler, and
there espied a big four-wheel Post Office
dray, waiting for the midnight mails.
"Who'd like a drive ? '* somebody said. In
a twinkling we were all up, me postillion,
riding the horse, and my legs hanging
over the shafts. My word ! the stones
rattled and the policemen's whistles blew
as we galloped full tilt all round York
city, and kept on holloaing imaginary
hounds out of cover. We left the dray
somewhere after a while, and skedaddled,
to escape being locked up, as we de-
served. The Post Office officials found
their dray again somehow, as I've often
seen it outside York Station since, and

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 22 7

always doff my hat. I paid the penalty
by having the skin scraped off the inside
of my legs with those blessed shafts.

What splendid ideas of good living
Yorkshire people have, with hot cakes
for breakfast quite an institution ; and how
the racing man relishes, as the seasons
recur, the different specialties — Dee salmon
at Chester, Sausages at Newmarket,
Northampton pork pies, grouse at York
(August), Doncaster butterscotch, Ponte-
fract cakes, and so on !

Every one is, I should imagine, dis-
appointed the first time they go to
Newmarket ; the contrast is so great to
Sandown, Kempton, and other club meet-
ings, with their military bands, flowers,
and drawing-room sort of entertainment.
They consider the finishing at different
posts absurd, and the journey to the
Cambs. course at top of the town a farce.
But Newmarket improves on acquaintance,

228 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

as one knows it better ; it is all the
real business side of racing here, and
endurance of the place soon gives way
to real fondness and appreciation as
you become accustomed to the different
courses with their different gradients, and
a lover of the thoroughbred has count-
less opportunities for taking note at
morning work on the Limekilns or Bury
Hills, and in Messrs. TattersalFs sale pad-
dock. It needs an abler pen than mine
to describe the glories of Ascot, or the
picturesque charms of Goodwood ; but
for real business commend me to New-
market, where the very air smells of
racing, so to speak — and a peculiarly
bracing air it is, too, having a sweet
scent peculiarly its own on a Two Thou-
sand Guineas morning in April. Your
average racing man needs a fair constitu-
tion to stand the exposure and travelling
in wet things one often has to endure.

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 229

Everybody has heard of Hackness
Cambs. day, or rather the day on which
it was postponed owing to the storm,
and of Robert the Devil's Leger, when
a boat would have floated comfortably
in the paddock, on both of which occa-
sions I was present ; but for swallowing
pure oxygen and catching all the winds
that blow, commend me to Lewes downs
or Cannock Chase, where once at a
coursing meeting we experienced the
worst tornado I ever was in.

What charming training-quarters one
sees at Newmarket, and dotted about all
over the country ! There is, however, no
prettier or more cosy little spot any-
where than Tom Cannon's little castle
at Danebury, the scene of so many
grand coups in the high gambling
Hastings era. Tom Cannon lays his
grounds out in flowers of his own
racing colours, red and white stripes, and

230 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

each time he has had a son or daughter
born, he places a miniature wooden
cannon on top of an embankment in the
garden. I sometimes think, if I had
fifteen Maxims judiciously placed round
our little chateau, I could keep a whole
army of writters and bums, and such
like invaders, at bay for ever so long,
and one could have rare fun.

Gentlest, most patient of readers, my
race is run, my sun is set, so far as
this book is concerned, and solemnly do
I swear and promise never to write
another. It is now just ten days since
I *'took one" off my brake, and my
contusions and bruises being sufficiently
recovered to allow of me once more
mixing with my fellow-men, I do so
with very mixed feelings. Firstly, have
I not registered that copper-bottomed
vow (never to be broken) which shall
secure me from backing any more losers ?

THE NOBLE ART OF BACKING WINNERS 23 1

and, secondly, my brain has become so
muddled through hatching this ditty,
that the wonder is I am not stark
staring mad. I am deeply conscious of
the fact that I have now left unsaid
many things that I ought to have said,
and that I have said things which I
perhaps ought not to have said — that
I have, in short, made a very big fool
of myself (but it won't be the first time,
or the last, either, I'm afraid) ; and I
suppose the only solatium to such a
one as I Is that others may take warn-
ing : and whilst I have just enough
courage to hope that some of my obser-
vations regarding breeding of horses
may not be entirely barren of good
fruit ; that my chapters on riding and
breaking may Impress on some recruit
the necessity of loosing their horses' heads
at the right moment ; that I have por-
trayed the hunting of the little red rover

232 THE MERRY GEE-GEE

as the noblest and least demoralizing
sport old England boasts; I also know,
without any possible shadow of doubt
whatever, that nothing I have said will
deter brave punters from bravely punting
on and on ; yet if, in laying bare my
varied experiences, I prevent a few such
persevering spirits from ''falling into the
net," getting '' lumbered," or wasting their
spare cash on *' paddock finals ; " and,
furthermore, should this ''sportsman's
autobiography " dissemble a newly, born
idea in a fluttering breast that the
backer's couch is a bed of roses, and his
path strewn with gold for the mere pick-
ing up, may not a wee moral have been
taught, and a useful lesson learned, from
the perusal of the "Merry Gee-Gee" ?

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BECCLES.

F. V. WHITE & CO;S

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